begett

In general, prior to using any hormone-altering drugs, they will have the usual range of hormonal levels in accordance with their sex.

This idea that the trans-identifying have the 'wrong hormones' and all that is essentially just a cult-like religious belief.

Looking at it from a perspective grounded in material biological reality: they desire to be the opposite sex, which isn't possible, so instead take hormone-altering drugs in an attempt to mimic some of the secondary sex characteristics that develop naturally on individuals of the opposite sex.

That's it, no magical thinking required.

It most likely is, for many people. In that it involves the adoption of a false self-belief via one's peers, from within the framework of the gender identity belief system. An interesting sociological phenomenon.

We can also look at the rise in people adopting 'they/them' and similar unusual personal pronouns as a measure of the rise in number of acolytes of that belief system.

It's a denial of material reality, replaced with a sort of spiritual essence of 'woman' or 'man' or some ill-defined in-between.