It's a self perpetuating problem much like a cult. Preys on the disaffected claiming to have the ultimate answer to happiness provided one follows the precepts of the cult, in this case hormones and surgery, this strains the relationships with friends and family who don't buy it and of course the cult recommends you cut all contact with anyone who expressed opinions other than true belief. Now the person joining the cult is essentially all in on that life path and the sunk cost fallacy comes into play, admitting that you don't feel happy or you have regrets loses you your new social group, you've already lost your old social group, you've got nothing, and you are essentially branded as a cult member by the physiological changes which will make reintegration into society more difficult.

Humans will under such circumstances not consider things logically, it's the classic toxic religious cycle of "if you feel bad, just pray harder" which can turn into a kind of reality denying drug in its own right. Those people in on it must tell themselves their path is correct and very passionately fight anyone who might cast doubt on that. The new people coming up through the ranks will see the detractors and be the youthful energy to fight the "heretics" as they are fully ideologically devoted to the idea, not having enough experience to make their own opinions on it, but only believing the promises of those who claim to hold the one secret to happiness.

Unlike cults turned legitamate religion, it's far too young and chaotic to have formed a corpus of literature and teachings that can provide a stabilizing effect on it, so there are no real institutions or bodies controlling it, it's much more akin to a mob mentality though occasionally certain voices are amplified via social media which chooses the saints and heretics of this new "religion".

I think there's a lot of truth behind the idea that "there were always a lot of people like this, and the lack of stigma simply allowed them to be their "true selves" in a matter of speaking. Rather I think that certain issues such as mild gender disphoria where more or less common amongst teenagers going through puberty, especially in women, but they lacked the ability to share their inner thoughts with the whole world. So essentially we've allowed the teenagers to form their own kind of social structure divorced from larger society and removed from having more experienced and cemented identities contributing to the conversations, instead they are filed into various special interest bubbles influenced by the algorithms which are very good at figuring out shared interests in ways that would never before encounter each other.

But it's important to hold onto historical perspective and realize that while the technology is different and society hasn't adapted to it yet. It's not entirely unprecedented in strange trends becoming normalized by one reason or another. Though the pace is likely significantly faster. You saw similar bizarre trends become commonplace in the 1800's. One is the rise of the kind of the typically American Christian cults. Mormons being the most obvious. But of lesser public awareness is the baptist ideal of the pre-tribulation rapture which didn't exist in Christianity until the mid 1800's in America but today you will find that most of the vocal evangelical types believe very strongly that it has been what christians have always believed, and the disagreement over it will utterly split churches regardless of the fact there are no biblical passages alluding directly towards it.

Another is the prevalence of male circumcision in American society which seems an equally illogical social trend.