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By Tyler Arnold
Washington, DC Newsroom, March 4, 2024 / 5:40 p.m. (CNA).
A comprehensive new study by Finnish researchers has found that providing transgender medication or surgery to adolescents does not appear to address the underlying mental health issues faced by young people struggling with their gender identity.
While some transgender lawmakers and activists have claimed that puberty-blocking drugs and transgender surgical procedures are “life-saving drugs,” the study disputes that claim. Research found no statistically significant reduction in suicides among adolescents who received “medical sex reassignment” through hormonal or surgical interventions.
“(Research) does not support claims that (sex reassignment) is necessary to prevent suicide,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Nor has (sex change) been shown to even reduce suicidal ideation, and suicidal ideation is not equal to actual suicide risk.”
The study analyzed mortality rates, including suicide rates, of Finns under the age of 23 who sought psychiatric help for gender identity issues between 1996 and 2019. The researchers published the study In the peer-reviewed BMJ Mental Health.
According to the researchers, suicide was rare among adolescents who visited a psychiatrist during the period analyzed in the study, regardless of whether they received transgender medications or surgical procedures.
Although adolescents struggling with gender identity issues have higher suicide rates than the general population, this gap appears to be rooted in deeper underlying psychological health issues that youth were facing rather than a lack of access to medications or transgender surgeries.
The study noted that adolescents who struggle with their gender identity typically have other underlying psychological health issues.
“Psychiatric morbidities are also common in this population,” the study states. “Therefore, suicide risk related to transgender identity and/or (gender dysphoria) per se may have been overestimated. »
However, the researchers noted limitations to their study. In particular, they pointed out that the individuals studied were young and would likely need follow-up periods of up to several decades to learn more. They further noted that the increase in adolescents seeking transgender medications and surgeries has primarily occurred over the past decade.
Dr. Michael Artigues, president of the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds), a socially conservative group, told CNA that the Finnish study confirms the results of a recent review of 60 studies. published by ACPedswhich found that “any increase in suicide in this population was not based on the absence of such intervention but on comorbidities, such as depression.”
“This highlights the need to aggressively treat underlying mental health disorders as well as address adverse childhood experiences rather than sending children down the path of transgender interventions that often lead to use puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones or surgical procedures that destroy healthy parts of their body,” Artigues said.
The study comes at a time when lawmakers in Western countries, including the United States, are considering whether children who identify as transgender should have access to puberty-blocking drugs, transgender hormone therapy and surgical changes of sex. Proponents often claim that access to these medications and surgical procedures will prevent suicide. Opponents frequently reject this characterization and warn against irreversible procedures that change minors’ lives and which they may ultimately regret.
In some European countries, such as Finland and the United Kingdom, only adults can undergo surgical sex reassignment. In Sweden and the Netherlands, minors cannot have genital surgery, but adolescents can have thoracic surgery from the age of 16. Fewer than half of U.S. states ban transgender surgeries on minors – but the number of states banning such procedures has increased significantly in recent years.
Mary Rice Hasson, director of the Person and Identity Project at the conservative Center for Ethics and Public Policy, told CNA that the Finnish study is “critically important” because it is “the first reliable study to large scale using matched controls and a significant study. follow-up time (six years), to assess the suicide risk of young people suffering from gender dysphoria.
“Contrary to claims that young people with gender dysphoria (distress related to identity or body) are more likely to commit suicide and that “gender transition” interventions will prevent suicide, this study provides evidence that problems pre-existing psychiatric conditions explain youth suicide rates. these young people – and that in fact the suicide rate is much lower than generally reported,” Hasson said.
“This is good news, which opens the way to more effective treatment for young people suffering from ‘gender dysphoria’ and confirms the direction already taken by several European countries,” she added. “They provide psychotherapy to gender dysphoric youth and address underlying psychiatric issues rather than attempting to heal their inner wounds with surgery or hormones. »
Jay Richards, director of the DeVos Center for Life, Religion and Family at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told CNA that the claim that these drugs and procedures prevent suicide “is probably the No. 1 myth people have who advocate this approach.
Richards warned that supporters of transgender procedures for children will often use this claim as a form of “emotional blackmail” against parents who are reluctant to facilitate a gender change for their children. He suggested that parents take “a watchful waiting approach” rather than “a hyper-medicalized approach”, noting that most children will come to terms with their gendered bodies if they are allowed to go through puberty naturally.
If you or someone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please contact Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) in the United States, or visit Suicide.org to find telephone helplines in other countries.
Tyler Arnold is a reporter for the Catholic News Agency, based in the Washington bureau of EWTN News. He previously worked at Center Square and has been published in various media outlets, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative, and The Federalist.
