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Adam Zivo: So much for 'life saving' gender affirming care

Finish study suggests mental health deteriorates after treatment

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A new Finnish study suggests that “gender affirming care” doesn’t actually improve the mental health of trans-identifying youth, and may, in fact, significantly worsen it. This is certainly vindicating for skeptics who want to restrict access to this treatment, and should prompt a rethink among Canadian policymakers.

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For years, trans activists have claimed that pediatric gender transitions — including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones — constitute “life saving” health care that stops kids from killing themselves. “Would you rather have a dead son or a live daughter,” they have often said to parents of gender-confused youth, in what essentially amounts to emotional blackmail.

Adam Zivo: So much for 'life saving' gender affirming care Back to video

While these activists have insisted that the science behind pediatric gender care is “settled,” multiple systematic reviews have concluded that there is no reliable evidence of either benefit or harm. In reality, the studies published in this field are overwhelmingly unusable, largely thanks to small sample sizes, short follow-up periods and high rates of patients dropping out of treatment or otherwise becoming unreachable.

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However, this new study, published in Swedish journal Acta Paediatrica, used Finland’s national health databases to provide a uniquely comprehensive long-term assessment of 2,083 youth (aged 23 or younger) who first visited a gender clinic between 1996 and 2019.

The data showed that, when youth underwent medicalized sex reassignment, their need for specialized psychiatric services skyrocketed, suggesting a decline in mental health. Those who visited a gender clinic, but did not begin reassignment, saw a moderate increase in psychiatric visits, suggesting that less invasive forms of gender care were unhelpful.

In other words: not only is the “transition or die” narrative seemingly unfounded, it would appear that gender medicine may actually harm vulnerable youth.

Unsurprisingly, these findings have spurred a maelstrom of debate, with critics arguing, not unreasonably, that the study should be interpreted........

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