Last year, a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry claimed to support the proposition that “gender-affirming surgeries” improve the mental health of people suffering from gender dysphoria. Last month, however, the AJP issued a correction that admitted that the study “demonstrated no advantage of surgery.” This is a blow to the ideology of transgenderism, but probably just a bump in the road in its heavy-handed takeover of American medicine.
The study, published as, “Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries: A Total Population Study,” analyzed a dataset of 2,679 Swedish patients who had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria in the period from 2005 to 2015. “Gender dysphoria” means identifying with the gender opposite one’s biological sex.
One assumes that by “gender-affirming surgeries,” the authors mean surgeries that modify the person’s body to fit better with the person’s pathological mental state, in which case they should be called “false identity-indulging surgeries.” These surgeries typically involve trying to construct opposite-sex sexual organs, and the results are not usually convincing. The physical differences between men and women are in the chromosomes—the DNA—and the physical differences in bone structure and overall body shape become pronounced during puberty. Surgeries cannot efface these inherent differences, and are little better than mutilation. And they are permanent, whereas gender dysphoria is often transient.
The study compared gender dysphoric people who did not take cross-sex hormones or undergo transgender surgery with those who did. The authors admitted that hormone therapy produces no long-term decreased need for mental health treatment, but claimed that “increased time since last gender-affirming surgery was associated with reduced mental health treatment”—i.e., surgery led to a long-term reduction in the need for psychiatric treatment.
The study appeared to be a big boost to transgender activists who advocate permanent surgical modification of those suffering from gender dysphoria. Rather than encouraging a person to accept his or her biological sex—i.e., encouraging sanity and the acceptance of reality—these activists claim that the best way to respond to gender dysphoria is to prescribe opposite-sex hormones and perform experimental surgeries, i.e., physical mutilation.
These activists claim that the root problem is lack of acceptance, that gender dysphoric people are depressed and commit suicide because society does not accept them. They claim that societal acceptance and “treatments” to affirm an identity at odds with a person’s biological sex are the only hope. In other words, the mental illness cannot be cured, it can only be indulged, humored, if you will, by those of us who are supposed to be sane. Unfortunately, these destructive activists have spread their ideology throughout America’s medical establishment.
The study came under intense scrutiny from those who oppose transgender ideology. Dr. Andre Van Mol, who co-chairs the adolescent sexuality committee of the American College of Pediatricians (which was formed in protest after transgender zealots took over the American Academy of Pediatricians), authored one of six letters to the editor of AJP critical of the study’s methods and findings. Van Mol’s team included endocrinologist Michael Laidlaw and renowned psychiatrists Miriam Grossman and Paul McHugh.
On August 1, the American Journal of Psychiatry published a “correction” (effectively a retraction), in which the authors reanalyzed the data and
“the results demonstrated no advantage of surgery in relation to subsequent mood or anxiety disorder-related health care visits or prescriptions or hospitalizations following suicide attempts in that comparison.”
Even originally, the study admitted there was no evidence that opposite sex hormones improve mental health. Now, the authors have admitted that even surgery does not seem to help long-term.
In a press release, the American College of Pediatricians noted that
“the study, and transgender affirming interventions, now seem invalidated.”
I would urge that Seventh-day Adventist and other Christian media publicize this as widely as possible. The mainstream media is not going to publicize this startling retraction because it does not fit their narrative.
I would also urge Christian parents to seek out pediatricians who are members of the American College of Pediatricians (ACP), rather than the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP), the original association for physicians specializing in the treatment of children which unfortunately has been taken over and compromised by transgender ideologues. (We have noted before that the ACP is sound on transgenderism. ) Unfortunately, the conservative ACP is smaller, and there often will not be an ACP member within a reasonable driving distance.
It is time to firmly oppose the transgender activists. Many people who once identified as transgender and later embraced their biological sex (known as de-transitioners) have come forward lamenting the irreversible changes made to their bodies as the outcome of irresponsible indulgence of their temporary false identity. They now regret the surgical modifications as a terrible mistake. It seems that the gender-dysphoric are often the victims of a cult of activists whose larger agenda is overturning the created sexual order and marginalizing traditional sexual mores and values.
Christians should be foremost in rejecting the satanic ideology of transgenderism. The Bible is the only sure foundation for human reasoning. Scripture is clear that God created humanity male and female (Gen. 1:27; 5:2), and that this sexual bifurcation is the reason for marriage (Mat. 19:4-5).
Sadly, human sin and the fall have marred everything, including gender, and therefore some people do struggle with gender identity. We must have compassion for those individuals. But true compassion does not extend to embracing their self-destructive wishes or behavior, nor to indulging their mental confusion about their gender. The worst thing we can do is indulge that confusion by allowing them to permanently mutilate the body their creator assigned them.
No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
Prestigious Psychiatry Journal Retracts Findings, Admits Sex-Reassignment Surgery Didn't Fix Mental Health -