(LifeSiteNews) — A new study examining the impact of cross-sex hormones on the mental health of adolescents has been misrepresented by mainstream media outlets that highlight cases of improved mental health and belittle those with increased suicidality after taking the drugs.
The study, titled “Psychosocial Functioning in Transgender Youth after 2 Years of Hormones,” was published on January 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine and was conducted because “limited prospective outcome data exist regarding transgender and nonbinary [sic] youth” who take cross sex hormones in the name of “transitioning.”
Researchers analyzed the “individual trajectories of appearance congruence, depression, anxiety, positive affect, and life satisfaction” of 315 participants between the ages 12 and 20. All participants identified as either “transgender” or “nonbinary” and were taking cross-sex hormones. Changes in these categories were monitored over a two-year period.
Twenty-five of the 315 young people involved in the study “had received previous pubertal suppression treatment.” The researchers concluded that “increases in appearance congruence were associated with concurrent increases in positive affect and life satisfaction and decreases in depression and anxiety symptoms.”
However, the results also show that “the most common adverse event was suicidal ideation,” which was experienced by 11 participants. Two of those young people committed suicide.
Despite these tragic results, several mainstream media outlets that reported on the study focused on the “positive affect” of cross-sex hormones and failed to present the results accurately, as noted by the Daily Wire.
In an article with the headline “Trans Teens Benefit from Gender-Affirming Care,” The Washington Post reported that “the more trans [sic] teens’ appearance aligned with their gender identity, the more satisfied they were in life and the less depressed and anxious they felt.”
Rather than cite the cases of suicidal ideation and deaths experienced by 11 of the study’s participants, the article points to a survey conducted within the pro-LGBT organization The Trevor Project, which found a higher suicide rate in transgender and non-binary identifying teenagers but does not portray the persistence of mental health issues as a result of pursuing so-called “transgender” medical intervention.
“Some 65% of that group [youth identifying as transgender and non-binary] reported symptoms of depression in the Trevor Project survey, compared to 47% among cisgender participants,” the article states. “Worse, one in five trans or non-binary [sic] teens said they had attempted suicide in the previous year.”
The Post concluded that “this new study suggests comprehensive health care [enabling minors to receive cross-sex hormones] could alleviate those symptoms.”
Medical News Today cited the same Trevor Project survey and argued that suicide rates among gender-confused youth are a result of limited access to cross-sex hormones and mutilating surgeries rather than the climax of their dysphoria. The article quoted a psychiatrist who told the outlet that the study “further validates the struggles so many trans youth face on a daily basis, which partially revolved around fitting in, feeling comfortable in their own skin, and being happy in their everyday life.”
Neither The Washington Post nor Medical News Today mentioned the study’s 11 participants who experienced suicidal ideation and the two who killed themselves amid so-called “treatment.”
NBC News did mention the suicides and pointed out that “improvement in mental health varied widely” among participants, but only after a lengthy defense of medical intervention for gender-confused people. The article cited the same Trevor Project survey in support of cross-sex hormones and mutilating surgeries as part of “the growing body of research that has found the care [sic] to have significant positive mental and physical health effects for transgender youth, who have disproportionately high rates of suicide.”
Although all three of these outlets assumed that high suicide rates among gender-confused young people is a result of limited access to medical intervention in the name of “gender affirmation,” medical professionals have revealed that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical intervention pose significant mental and physical health risks.
In October, a pediatric surgeon called medical intervention for gender-confused patients “malpractice” and stated that gender dysphoria must be treated as a mental illness rather than attempting to address the issue with hormones and surgeries.
Last month, a video of a local American Academy of Pediatrics chapter surfaced on social media showing an executive of the national organization admitting that young people who take puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones “probably will be infertile.”
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