Current Events > Trans people who transition are less likely to need mental health treatment

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.newsweek.com/transgender-affirming-surgery-mental-health-1463135

*who undergo gender-reaffirming surgery, but 80 characters and all

Transgender people who have gender-affirming surgery are less likely to need mental health treatment, according to scientists who say such interventions must be as easy as possible to access.

Gender-affirming treatments can help a person align their body with their gender identity. An individual might choose to take masculinizing or feminizing hormones, for instance, or have operations which surgically change their face, voice, or body.

For their study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, researchers looked at data collected between 2005 and 2015 from a Swedish population register linked to a national healthcare database, and assessed the available information on the 2,679 individuals diagnosed with gender incongruence.

The health condition is characterized by feelings of distress because the gender a person was assigned at birth according to their sex does not match their internal feelingsfor example, a person with a penis being described as a man despite identifying as a woman. Transgender people may experience gender incongruence, although not every trans person feels this way.

The research team recorded whether the individuals they assessed had gender-affirming hormone or surgical procedures, and whether they received mental health treatment. This included visiting the doctor for a mood or anxiety disorder, being prescribed antidepressants or anti-anxiety drugs, and/or being hospitalized following a suicide attempt.

Of the individuals with diagnosed gender incongruence, 70 percent took hormones. Some 48 percent had gender-affirming surgery, with 97 percent also having hormone treatment. Just under a third had neither treatment.

On average, when compared with individuals who don't have gender incongruence, those who did were six times more likely to be hospitalized after trying to end their life, and six times more likely to visit the doctor because of a mood or anxiety disorder. They were also three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants and anxiolytics.

But the researchers found the longer the period of time since a patient person had gender-affirming surgery, the less likely they were to need mental health treatment. The likelihood dropped by 8 percent every year in the 10 years following 2005. However, hormone therapy wasn't found to have the same effect in this study.

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Study co-author Richard Brnstrm, associate professor in the department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, told Newsweek the study gives "strong support for providing gender-affirming care to transgender individuals who seek them."

In the U.S., the authors pointed out, some states deny the use of public funds for gender-affirming treatments, while the Veterans Health Administration prohibits the surgery at Veterans Affairs facilities and won't use its funds for such interventions.

Poor access to such treatments can push transgender people to seek hormones and surgery without medical supervision, which can be dangerous, they said.

Addressing the findings, Brnstrm said he was "somewhat surprised by the fact that even among transgender individuals treated 10 years ago, the risk of mental health problems were still somewhat elevated" when compared with the rest of the population.

"This calls for improvements in the mental health support provided to this group," he argued.

Acknowledging a limitation of the study, Brnstrm said: "This study was based on registry data only and we don't know any details about the living conditions and needs of each individual. Future studies should explore more in-depth individual factors and their influence on the mental health of this increasingly visible population."

Brnstrm said: "This study was done in Sweden, a country with universal health care and relatively strong social welfare system. It is important to understand the situation of transgender individuals in other countries in the world and other regional settings."

Last month, a separate study found that transgender people who undergo the widely discredited practice of gender conversion therapy are more likely to attempt suicide. The findings were published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Amy E. Green, director of research for LGBTQ youth suicide prevention organization The Trevor Project, told Newsweek at the time that in contrast to conversion therapy, "health and mental health treatments that are based on accepting and affirming principles have a strong evidence-base and allow LGBTQ individuals to thrive."

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People being accepted for who they are have less mental issues then those treated like freaks? Who would have thunk that.
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bump
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Yeah, I remember one of my high school acquaintances posted something about how the suicide rate of trans people who undergo transition surgery is so many times higher than the general population, and I had to gently explain that the overall suicide rate of trans people is almost 1 in 2, so that's actually a huge improvement in outcomes.

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I thought the suicide rate was higher though...
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AnimeFan462 posted...

I thought the suicide rate was higher though...

It is. It's much higher than the average.
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AnimeFan462 posted...

I thought the suicide rate was higher though...

The suicide rate for those who have had surgery is still several times higher than the general population, it's just orders of magnitude lower than those who don't transition.

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https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7541679/amp/Hundreds-youths-gender-surgery-wish-hadnt-says-head-advocacy-network.html
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A dailymail article that openly admits that they don't have any actual data at all

Ok fam, if that's the source you want to go with.
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PleaseClap posted...

A dailymail article that openly admits that they don't have any actual data at all

Ok fam, if that's the source you want to go with.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detransition

Better? Actual data is there in the sources.
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Formal studies of detransition have been few in number,[8] of disputed quality,[9] and politically controversial.[10] Frequency estimates for detransition and desistance vary greatly, with notable differences in terminology and methodology.[11][12]

why would you tell on yourself like this

I'm also wondering exactly what kind of point you're trying to make here. Would you care to elaborate on your thoughts?
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PleaseClap posted...

Formal studies of detransition have been few in number,[8] of disputed quality,[9] and politically controversial.[10] Frequency estimates for detransition and desistance vary greatly, with notable differences in terminology and methodology.[11][12]

why would you tell on yourself like this

I'm also wondering exactly what kind of point you're trying to make here. Would you care to elaborate on your thoughts?

This, along with the opening post, show that transitioning is not the answer for some cases.
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trappedunderice posted...

Trans people have mental illness obviously.

Yeah, it's called gender dysphoria. And the negative mental state that comes with gender dysphoria can be alleviated by transitioning to another gender.

That's what this article is saying - trans people who undertake gender-affirming surgery generally try to kill themselves less and seek less hospital time for personality disorders like anxiety and suicide. Getting surgery and HRT stabilises them, while suffering the effects of gender dysphoria puts them at higher risk of personality disorders and suicide attempts.

You wouldn't deny a depressed person antidepressants, because that treatment helps to level them out and make them feel better. Denying a mentally ill person treatment options out of some prejudice or bias for their condition is wrong.
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MrMallard posted...

trappedunderice posted...

Trans people have mental illness obviously.

Yeah, it's called gender dysphoria. And the negative mental state that comes with gender dysphoria can be alleviated by transitioning to another gender.

That's what this article is saying - trans people who undertake gender-affirming surgery generally try to kill themselves less and seek less hospital time for personality disorders like anxiety and suicide. Getting surgery and HRT stabilises them, while suffering the effects of gender dysphoria puts them at higher risk of personality disorders and suicide attempts.

You wouldn't deny a depressed person antidepressants, because that treatment helps to level them out and make them feel better. Denying a mentally ill person treatment options out of some prejudice or bias for their condition is wrong.

Anti-depressants are not the only treatment for depression. Many other practices work just as well, if not better, in some cases.
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MaverickXeo posted...

MrMallard posted...

trappedunderice posted...

Trans people have mental illness obviously.

Yeah, it's called gender dysphoria. And the negative mental state that comes with gender dysphoria can be alleviated by transitioning to another gender.

That's what this article is saying - trans people who undertake gender-affirming surgery generally try to kill themselves less and seek less hospital time for personality disorders like anxiety and suicide. Getting surgery and HRT stabilises them, while suffering the effects of gender dysphoria puts them at higher risk of personality disorders and suicide attempts.

You wouldn't deny a depressed person antidepressants, because that treatment helps to level them out and make them feel better. Denying a mentally ill person treatment options out of some prejudice or bias for their condition is wrong.

Anti-depressants are not the only treatment for depression. Many other practices work just as well, if not better, in some cases.

But if push comes to shove, would you be opposed to someone using antidepressants to manage their condition? If a transgender person exhausted all available resources and still felt depressed, anxious and suicidal, would surgery not be an avenue worth pursuing?

Cognitive behavioral therapy might be able to help - with depression or body dysphoria, funnily enough - but body dysphoria can be treated with hormone replacement therapy and gender reassignment surgery. There will always be cases of body dysphoria where everyone in a person's sphere of influence accepts them, they can present as their preferred gender in their day to day lives, they find a romantic partner who loves them dearly for who they are - but their dysphoria will continue to haunt them because a piece of their identity needs to be changed thanks to dysphoria.

This condition - which leads into a myriad of personality disorders and mental illnesses if not treated - can be treated through hormone replacement therapy and gender reassignment surgery. It's a big step, but the legal and medical recognition of their preferred gender shouldn't be underestimated here. It shouldn't be ruled out, even considering the people who misdiagnosed their condition and had to de-transition sometime in the future.

Some depressed people might be able to make their condition more bearable through intense therapy, moving to somewhere more bearable and surrounding themselves with less toxic people, but even then, anti-depressants tend to help their condition. And there will be cases where a depressed person will not be able to function without anti-depressants. To deny them treatment because you disagree with the method is selfish.
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Bump
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Duncanwii posted...

People being accepted for who they are have less mental issues then those treated like freaks? Who would have thunk that.

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shockthemonkey posted...

It seems obvious that having a reaffirming appearance would help, but people sure love to peddle bullshit about trans people for some odd reason.

Some odd reason indeed
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Lets get one more bump in here
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