Inevitable?

Being transsexual didn't always come with perfect predictability as to what people would do about it. For one thing, before the 1950's there was but a tiny handful of transitions. For another, people had been living for millennia without such a possibility even existing. 

Therefore the approach that each person took had a lot to do with personal and family history, personality type, religious beliefs, strength of dysphoria, etc. 

In other words, there was a myriad of factors which didn't necessarily always lead to an inevitable conclusion. 

Today we have turned this on its head because the climate has seen transitions contain more elective elements. There are more variations possible (including social transition) where it becomes personalized. 

The medical transitions of the past tended to be those with the highest degree of inevitability; the ones that Harry Benjamin referred to as his type VI. They tended to be androphilic and very feminine in childhood which meant that things were generally more aligned in their favour to begin with. 

Once society began to change we saw a wider slice of transgender people find unique paths that better fit their particular situations. 

Unfortunately that has also meant increasing the number of regret cases despite their percentage remaining relatively small.