This ruling was overturned on appeal in 2021, once again allowing children under 16 to consent to puberty blockers.Data from the Tavistock clinic found that children who were given puberty blockers were very likely to transition, with 43/44 (98%) of children who were given puberty blockers ultimately going on to take cross-sex hormones. History
Past attempts at therapeutic intervention often included conversion therapy, viewing gender non-conformity as a problem to be fixed rather than natural variation. In addition, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation were often conflated as problems to be corrected and replaced with the "correct" gendered behavior. Noting that many transgender and homosexual adults reported gender-nonconformity in childhood, clinicians at the time viewed early childhood intervention as a way to prevent a later LGBT identification. Notable proponents of the view that a trans "outcome" should be discouraged have included Richard Green, John Money, George Rekers, Ole Ivar Lovaas, Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley.The introduction of the GIDC diagnosis into the DSM-III in 1980 was preceded by numerous US studies and treatments on feminine boys beginning as early as the 1950s and 1960s, most prominently by John Money and Richard Green at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The prevention of transsexuality and / or homosexuality was explicitly stated as the goal of many of these studies: "My focus will be what we might consider the prevention of transsexualism."
The studies state that the majority of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria did not desire to be the other sex by puberty, with most growing up to identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, with or without therapeutic intervention.The prospective studies have been criticized  on the basis that they counted as desistance cases where the child was simply gender-nonconforming rather than dysphoric. While they met the criteria for gender identity disorder as defined in the DSM-III or DSM-IV, many would not have met the updated criteria for gender dysphoria in the DSM-5, established in 2013. In addition, prior to the DSM-III in 1980, there was no diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria, so research on desistance rates published prior to 2000 reported inflated numbers of desistance.Additionally, the evidence offered has been criticized for citing studies which have been labelled conversion therapy for discouraging social transition and trying to prevent a transgender outcome. The studies have been used to argue for more caution in socially or medically transitioning transgender youth; however, they have been criticized as irrelevant due to tracking diagnoses rather than tracking evolution of gender identity or desire to transition. In addition, Bonifacio et al. state that "there is research to suggest" that some desistance of GD "may be caused, in part, by an internalizing pressure to conform rather than a natural progression to non–gender variance. "According to a review published in 2022 considering more recent studies, the majority of pre-pubertal children who socially transition persist in their identity in 5 to 7 year follow ups.