Communications Manager Paul Huxley unpacks new evidence from Finland that challenges a central claim of gender ideology: that medical transition improves young people’s mental health.
“Would you rather have a trans child or a dead child?”
During the explosion of transgenderism in the 2010s, this question was consistently weaponised against parents who showed resistance to a child’s possible gender transition.
The science has never supported this idea. The evidence we helped to gather supporting Nigel and Sally Rowe when they stood against social transitions in schools was strong. More recently, the Cass Review has led to the UK no longer putting children on puberty blockers.
But a new peer-reviewed study of adolescents in Finland published this week may have provided some of the strongest evidence yet of what Christians and just about anyone with common sense believed all along: altering young people’s bodies through cross-sex hormones and radical surgery doesn’t help their mental health.
A comprehensive study
The study by Sami-Matti Ruuska, Katinka Tuisku, Timo Holttinen and Riittakerttu Kaltiala looked at everyone aged under 23 years who was referred for gender-related treatment in Finland between 1996 and 2019.
Because of the way Finland keeps health statistics, it was possible for the researchers to look at the long-term effects (between 2 and 25 years) for all these young people – a difficulty for many other studies.
They compared the specialist-level psychiatric treatment needed before and after these adolescents’ referral to the country’s two gender clinics. Specifically, they looked at whether there were differences between boys (seeking to be feminised) and girls (seeking to be masculinised) and whether the outcomes were different if they received medical interventions (like hormones and surgery) or not.
They also looked at whether there was a difference between those referred before 2011 (when referrals began to skyrocket) and those afterwards.
They matched all of these youths with 4 boys and 4 girls of the same age from their municipality to provide a control group for further comparison.
If ‘transgender affirming’ medical treatments really helped these young people you would expect to see a drop in psychiatric treatment for them.
It didn’t. In fact, it increased.
Most tragic consequences for boys
It’s abundantly clear when reading the paper that many of these gender-dysphoric young people (think: 14–22 year olds) were struggling psychologically. This was worst among the group that did not receive ‘reassignment’ treatments – this is because those with known psychiatric conditions were not normally given hormones or surgery.
So those receiving hormones and/or surgery had some of the least mental health concerns. This was strongest among the boys – there were only 16 of them, but the records suggest that their mental health before being treated was better than their peers (9.8% compared to 13.6% in the control group).
Two years later, a staggering 60.7% of these same boys had required specialist psychiatric treatment. The researchers suggest a reason for this:
“…considerable increases in need for psychiatric treatment were seen among those adolescents who had undergone medical [gender reassignment], particularly among those seeking change toward female. Oestrogen has been found to potentially cause depressive symptoms in both cisgender women and transwomen, which may partly explain the increases in psychiatric needs among those who underwent feminising [gender reassignment].”
There was also a rise among the equivalent girls – 21.6% rising to 54.5%.
“Masculinising hormones may temporarily improve mood, and testosterone-related bodily changes—typically emerging within a few months—could be expected to alleviate [gender dysphoria] and subsequently psychiatric treatment needs. However, psychiatric treatment needs were also markedly increased among those who obtained masculinising [gender reassignment]. Subsequent morbidity burden may also arise from treatments not meeting the expectations placed on them.”
Over the same time period, their peers saw slight improvements overall.
Not necessarily because of hormones and surgery
The researchers’ deeper analysis did not show that these were because of the hormones or surgery. When they adjusted for several variables, they did not show a difference between those receiving physical treatments and those who didn’t – the bigger factors were their year of birth and the year they went to the clinic.
Still, the record is damning. None of these gender-dysphoric groups found themselves needing less psychiatric support. Meanwhile their peers remained broadly stable.
This is strong evidence that these physical interventions do not decrease the need for mental health support.
The trans narrative took over
The researchers drew several conclusions from their research. Comparing those referred before 2011 and those after, the data:
“suggests that increasingly, adolescents with severe psychiatric morbidity are referred to GIS. The change is hardly attributable to improved recognition of mental disorders, as no similar rise was observed in the control group.”
This happened during the period when trans became the default explanation given to young people for their struggles. Teens on websites like Tumblr were spreading the trans myth as a way to come to terms with the changes happening to their bodies and relationships as they progressed through puberty and secondary school.
The promise was held out – mostly to young girls – that becoming a boy would fix these feelings. And medical professionals went along with it.
Minority stress theory is false
Some people hold to the idea of ‘minority stress theory’ where those with minority status (like LGBTQ+ people) have worse health outcomes because of societal stigma. It was even cited as grounds for Felix Ngole losing his job.
“Minority stress theory posits that mental disorders in transgender identifying people largely arise from actual and internalised prejudice… The notable increase in those contacting the GIS and the increased psychiatric morbidity among them since the 2010s may also suggest that, for some, mental health challenges may manifest as concerns related to gender identity.”
The period covered by the study saw vast increases in acceptance of transgenderism across society in Finland and elsewhere. This ought to have led to less psychiatric treatment among these gender dysphoric youths – instead it only grew.
General mental health challenges are being interpreted as gender identity struggles. It’s a narrative that has gripped society.
What next?
This study ought to send alarm bells ringing among all gender clinicians. These young people do not appear to be getting better.
If these treatments were simply labelled ‘conversion therapy’, MPs from across the political spectrum would be demanding that this is immediately banned as utterly ineffective.
Thousands of susceptible young people have been led down this path. Those who opposed this – including the Rowes, Kristie Higgs, Victoria Culf, ‘Hannah’, Bernard Randall and Izzy Montague – have paid a heavy price.
There will be a reckoning for all this.
Quick, widespread and deep repentance is needed. Stop these treatments. Redirect funding towards proper mental health care and restitution. Remove pro-trans resources from schools.
And turn to Christ. He forgives, he transforms, he brings healing and peace.
“If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” (Psalm 130:3–4 ESV)