S.A. McCarthy | The Washington Stand
While some in the U.S. health community continue to claim that gender transition procedures save lives, a new study is showing that the dangerous interventions actually increase the risk of suicide.
A study published last month entitled “Risk of Suicide and Self-Harm Following Gender-Affirmation Surgery” evaluated patient data from nearly 60 U.S. health care organizations, comprising millions of patients. Over 1,500 patients, called “Cohort A,” were “adults aged 18-60 who had gender-affirming surgery and an emergency visit”; nearly 16 million patients, called “Cohort B,” were a “control group of adults with emergency visits but no gender-affirming surgery”; while almost 150,000 patients, called “Cohort C,” were “adults with emergency visits, tubal ligation or vasectomy, but no gender-affirming surgery.” A fourth group, called “Cohort D,” were examined to “validate the results from cohort C.”
Data analyzed covered a full 20 years, from February 4, 2003 to February 4, 2023. The study concluded, “Individuals who underwent gender-affirming surgery had a 12.12-fold higher suicide attempt risk than those who did not…” Those who had undergone gender transition surgeries were nearly five times more likely to attempt suicide than those who had undergone tubal ligations or vasectomies. The study warned, “Gender-affirming surgery is significantly associated with elevated suicide attempt risks, underlining the necessity for comprehensive post-procedure psychiatric support.”
The study’s findings are in line with the conclusions of numerous other studies. For example, research published in the BMJ Mental Health journal earlier this year found that gender transition procedures such as hormone drugs and surgeries have “not been shown to reduce even suicidal ideation, and suicidal ideation is not equal to actual suicide risk.” An extensive 30-year-long study from Sweden concluded that suicide rates increase after gender transition surgeries, rising to at least 20 times the suicide rate of the general population.
A report from the U.K. last year found that over a third of children who were prescribed puberty blockers and hormone drugs actually suffered worsened mental health. And a study from Finland discovered that those who identify as transgender typically manifest “many more common psychiatric needs” than the general population, but that gender transition procedures do not alleviate or cure those mental health issues.
Countless other studies have shown that gender transition procedures are actually harmful, especially to children. A study published in March suggested that puberty blockers have numerous harmful effects on children, including an increased risk of cancer in boys.
As it turns out, transgenderism activists have been aware of the “debilitating” effects of gender transition procedures for years. Leaked internal files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) demonstrated that members of the organization were acutely aware of the “debilitating” and “potentially fatal” effects of gender transition procedures, which they also implied they did not “fully understand.”
This was further confirmed earlier this year, with the publication of a series of video presentations from WPATH’s 2022 Global Education Institute. In those videos, WPATH “experts” discussed how they really know very little about the long-term effects of hormone drugs, other than the permanent damage done to fertility; how puberty blockers are irreversible and may have devastating impacts on both future fertility and current brain development; how gender transition procedures do not alleviate mental health issues and may actually make them worse; and the dangers associated with surgical interventions, including high complication rates, the severe damage done to healthy tissue, and potential side effects like wound healing delays or necrosis.
Lately, experts outside the U.S. have also been sounding the alarm over the potential and largely-unstudied dangers of gender transition procedures, especially for children. Both England and Scotland have completely halted the prescription of puberty blockers and hormone drugs to minors, with England’s National Health Service (NHS) warning that “there is not enough evidence of safety and clinical effectiveness” to support their use. A number of leading clinical psychologists have publicly apologized for their profession’s role in promoting “gender-affirming care” and have called for a thorough review and possible reform of the psychological and psychiatric profession’s standards. And the NHS revised its official constitution to declare sex a “biological” reality, instead of giving preference to “gender identity.”
The U.K. is only one of a number of European countries that have put the brakes on gender transition procedures for minors. France, Sweden, Finland, and Norway have all also warned that there is insufficient evidence to support puberty blockers, hormone drugs, and surgeries for children, but the U.S. has become an “outlier” by continuing to endorse the practice.
Last year, Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Rachel Levine, a biological man who identifies as a woman, declared, “We often say that gender-affirming care is healthcare, gender-affirming care is mental healthcare, and gender-affirming care is literally suicide prevention care.” However, when pressed to provide evidence supporting the claim, Levine could only produce a single two-page PDF document citing one study conducted by an LGBT activist group.
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON STAND
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
