Cross-Sex Hormone Use Among Teens Is Rising. Should Canadians Be Concerned?

A report examines rising use of cross-sex hormones among teens in Canada and the medical debate around youth gender-affirming care. It notes that masculinizing and feminizing hormone therapy can induce secondary sex characteristics aligned with a young person’s gender identity while suppressing progression of birth-sex characteristics. The article says demand for gender-affirming care has grown substantially since the early 2000s, driven primarily by adolescents assigned female at birth (AFAB), who now account for nearly three quarters of new referrals in Canadian clinics. It cautions that hormone interventions are highly consequential and long-term health impacts are not well characterized, pointing to limited evidence on long-term quality of life and reliance on retrospective studies with short follow-up.