Research from Finland has suggested that people seeking gender reassignment surgery are substantially more likely to need referral for psychiatric treatment.
The study, which was published in Acta Paediatricia, looked at just over 2,000 young people who contacted Finnish gender clinics between 1996 and 2019, and compared them with a sample of over 16,600 people from the rest of the population.
Among those seeking gender reassignment, just under half (45.7 per cent) had specialist psychiatric treatment prior to being referred to a gender clinic. By comparison just 15 per cent of the general population had psychiatric treatment.
After referral to a gender clinic, 61.7 per cent of those referred required specialist psychiatric treatment at least two years after referral.
For those who actually went ahead with gender reassignment (GR), a considerable increase in psychiatric treatment was recorded, jumping from 9.8 per cent to 60.7 per cent for male to female transitioners, and from 21.6 per cent to 54.5 per cent for female to male transitioners.
The researchers noted that 2010 was a turning point after which there was a significant rise in people seeking gender reassignment. The study found that young people referred after this point were more likely to need psychiatric treatment both before and after gender referral, when compared to before 2010.
The researchers said, “Actually, considerable increases in need for psychiatric treatment were seen among those adolescents who had undergone medical GR, 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 GR.
“Masculinising hormones may temporarily improve mood, and testosterone-related bodily changes - typically emerging within a few months - could be expected to alleviate GD [gender dysphoria] and subsequently psychiatric treatment needs.
“However, psychiatric treatment needs were also markedly increased among those who obtained masculinising GR. Subsequent morbidity burden may also arise from treatments not meeting the expectations placed on them.”
