Finnish study debunks the claim that sex changes for minors reduce suicide rates

A common cry from trans activists on the need to gender transition minors is that sex changes are lifesaving. They don't mean that without the sex change drugs and surgeries kids will die as a result of gender dysphoria, they mean that if they are not permitted to undergo sex changes, they will kill themselves. This has been proven false by a new study out of Finland. It shows that cross-sex hormones and sex change surgeries do not have an impact on suicide deaths.

Parents of gender dysphoric kids are told this by activists, teachers, and most importantly, by psychologists, therapists, and medical doctors. Upon hearing the prognosis, accompanied by comments like "would you rather have a dead son or a living daughter," many parents instantly fold and go along with whatever they are told to do.

This groundbreaking study, summarized by Benjamin Ryan in the New York Post, concluded that on the contrary, higher suicide rates were tied to higher rates of severe psychiatric problems and not gender confusion.

Gender "distress," as the outlet calls it, severe enough to warrant a visit to a gender clinic was not independently linked to higher suicide rates.

The study, entitled "All-cause and suicide mortalities among adolescents and young adults who contacted specialised gender identity services in Finland in 1996–2019," did find that suicide rates in the study group were generally are higher, but rare in gender-distressed youths.

The authors of the study concluded that its subjects needed comprehensive mental healthcare and not life-disrupting sex changes.

Seven years of health information for a group of 17,000 Finns was compared. There were 8 people to every 1 "gender-distressed" person. Records were examined for the 2,083 people who had their first visits to one of two Finnish gender clinics anywhere from 8-22 years of age.

38 percent of these gender-distressed youths went on cross-sex hormones of underwent gender-transition surgeries.

Of the 55 total deaths in the study group, 20 were suicides. 0.3 percent of the gender-distressed group dies by suicide compared to 0.1 percent in the comparison group.

Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, one of its leaders and a top Finnish adolescent psychiatrist, called it "unethical" for medical professionals to pose the aforementioned question to parents, adding that "It’s not based on facts."

“We must not think that gender-reassignment alone is all the help that they need," Dr. Kaltiala, who was once herself a proponent of gender-affirming healthcare, said.