(LifeSiteNews) — A “Transgender Center” in Austria has seen a massive surge in patients, with one third of them being minors.
According to Austrian news outlet Exxpress, the Transgender Center at Innsbruck Hospital has seen a significant increase in patients from all over Austria, Germany, South Tyrol, and Switzerland. Between 800 and 900 people are currently receiving “gender affirming treatment” at the facility. One third of admissions are under the age of 18.
The Transgender Center in Innsbruck is the only facility in Austria that offers all-around “treatment” for gender-confused individuals – ranging from psychiatry to plastic surgery. Mutilating gender surgeries like mastectomies are only offered to adult patients; however, the path to these radical, irreversible procedures that often leave people infertile starts much sooner, with the administration of hormone blockers, which are already prescribed to pre-pubescent children.
The sharp rise in demand has led to long waiting times of up to 12 months. The number of initial consultations has nearly tripled over the past ten years.
The director of the transgender clinic, Katharina Feil, credits social media with the increase in patients. She said that the online presence of the issue has led to people feeling more confident to question their own “gender identity.”
“Social media fosters greater openness and encourages people to feel confident about reflecting on their identity,” Feil stated.
“Many are coming to realize that they may be different from what they have previously admitted to themselves,” she continued.
Feil emphasizes that those affected by gender dysphoria are suffering from serious psychological pressure. “This is not something anyone chooses lightly,” she said.
The Transgender Center leader appeared not to entertain the possibility that exposure to pro-LGBT social media content may be a cause of gender dysphoria, and that social contagion and hype around the issue play a major role in the rise of gender-confusion among young people.
As LifeSiteNews has reported previously, there are thousands of testimonies of “de-transitioners” who regret having gone through the harmful gender procedures that leave them permanently damaged physically and psychologically. Consequently, other European countries, such as the U.K., have already banned the use of hormone blockers.