I have coached other Trans women for years on how to prepare for and have a successful gender transition experience. Out of thousands of women, I can only think of five with regret or a worsening mental health state that resulted from the surgery, but of those, only one with dissatisfaction and depression due ONLY to the surgery. She just had an unfortunate experience with a terrible outcome, not her or her doctor's fault. The rest, it was a combination of factors including discrimination, rejection by previously supportive partners, and financial difficulties.
The GOPMAGA idea that the surgery alone worsens mental health is not only untrue it's ridiculous to anyone WHO HAS EVER ACTUALLY SPOKEN TO TRANS PEOPLE.
And this is why they don't want to speak with us and indeed, would rather silence us. They don't want us interrupting their mass murder of us with uncomfortable empiricism and facts that aren't alternative.
1. Lots of medical systems require that you are "suffering" before they will agree to surgeries so Trans folks have to say that they are in order to get the care they need, regardless of that level or presence of suffering.
2. The circling around "regret" or whether it makes people "happy" misses the transness in the action AND makes it really hard for folks to talk openly about their transition experiences because we have to put on a happy no-regret face. I didn't have any of my surgeries for happiness, I did it for wholeness (which includes happiness), I did it just to see what I could become. I did it because when I say I'm Trans, I mean I am always transitioning...for better or worse.
Who publishes a study that can be so easily misinterpreted? It sounds like the authors did some work to make clear the ways that the study had limitations, but I'm also struggling to imagine what the value of the study was if it's essentially comparing two non-comparable groups.
I'm not sure where the A&M Connection is. It looks like all the researchers are affiliated with Baylor or the University of Texas Medical centers in Houston and Galveston. A&M has a lot of issues, but the psychology faculty and research team were fairly progressive and open-minded. I was a researcher in the Brain and Gender Lab at A&M in the late 00's and most of the faculty I worked with are still active at the university.
I'm not sure how to think about Baylor. I remember back in the day when a number of their undergrad women were expelled because they did an interview with Playboy. They are, after all, a Baptist university.
I'm more disappointed in Journal of Sexual Medicine for publishing it. These journals providing a platform for badly-done "science" that supports anti-trans talking points need to be held accountable.
Why is a study like this even produced? I'd like to see the actual study, but one clip of it I saw said it specifically excluded patients with pre-existing, documented mental health diagnosis. Why? Shouldn't a study like this seek to determine whether there is a quality of life improvement instead of just whether they have added mental-health diagnosis?
I probably contributed to this 'statistic', I got officially diagnosed with depression and ADHD after my surgeries. But, I could have easily have been diagnosed with those prior to the surgeries as well, surgery didn't make those conditions worse for me. If anything, they have helped boost my confidence and self-assurance!
What has actually made those conditions worse is the ever-increasing anti-trans rhetoric they keep throwing on us! Between the anti-trans stuff at the state and federal level, and specific anti-trans stuff that I've experienced directly in my own life, THAT's what prompted me to reach out for help, not the surgeries.
Because if they measured in a truly validated pre-post metric the way such studies SHOULD be, there's no ambiguity to exploit. Measuring pre transition gender satisfaction and post transition gender satisfaction and using a validated instrument like the BDI (Beck Depression Inventory) would clearly indicate levels of success similar to other studies; 98% or so with the social transition, similar with other transition components, excluding unhappiness from external sources such as discrimination and harassment from cisgender people BECAUSE THAT'S NOT A FACTOR THAT CAN BE AFFECTED BY TRANSITION, and a 95%+ incidence of decrease in BDI scores, EVEN WITH external sources of depression resulting from discrimination and harassment!
In other words, a cessation of discrimination and harassment wouldn't eliminate the experience or incidence of gender dysphoria but it would greatly increase satisfaction and positive mental health outcomes, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER BEFORE OR AFTER GENDER TRANSITION. So if those are the goals, why not try acceptance before discriminatorily banning such care for transgender Americans but enshrining gender affirming care as a basic human right for cisgender people ONLY, often in the SAME BILLS?!? And here's how we see the bad faith inherent within the thought process of the anti-Trans genocidalists; we see it made evident in ALL such eradicatory analysis over studies empirical, studies troubled or ambiguous like this one, or studies that are complete and utter rubbish, like the Cass Report, Littman's ROGD, or Blanchard's silly "Autogynephilia".
Yet the anti-Trans crowd has no intention of proposing such a practical society wide intervention, instead focusing on abolition of transition -eradication-extermination as the only acceptable Final Solution to the conundrum of our continuing existence.
Considering the vast costs to exterminating us, inclusion of our diversity and an equitable access to affirming care are real bargains but fascism has always been Reichsmark foolish, Pfennig wise.
No matter what the results of any study are, they'll always claim it supports their bigotry. 𝘈𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴. They know their base hasn't read it and doesn't care to; they know they can get away with just lying outright, and the only voices calling them out on it will be those their loyal followers won't listen to anyway.
If they're basing it purely on ICD-10 codes then they're basically measuring clinical impressions for the purpose of billing. It's very possible that a post-surgical trans person may not meet diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria, or may prefer to omit it from their medical documentation.
GAS was life saving for my trans daughter. She finally feels like herself! She has improved mentally tremendously. I'm so happy she was able to get it before all of this B.S. hit the fan
Just one thought comes to mind... these people who want to attack people in the basis of one study are Just fucking stupid because that's not how scientific research works. (Which it should have never been accepted for review without major fixes. Literally no conclusions can be made from it. Except that some researchers attempted to do research and done it very badly.
we love deriving if-then statements from a study which doesnt look at before-and-after surgery rates of depression. as you said, there are so many questions it just ~doesn't answer~ or even seem to indicate should be asked, but yknow, should ? which is aaalways a good thing from the field of study about asking and an answering questions. rwers use good science challenge (FAILED) (APPARENTLY IMPOSSIBLE)
I have coached other Trans women for years on how to prepare for and have a successful gender transition experience. Out of thousands of women, I can only think of five with regret or a worsening mental health state that resulted from the surgery, but of those, only one with dissatisfaction and depression due ONLY to the surgery. She just had an unfortunate experience with a terrible outcome, not her or her doctor's fault. The rest, it was a combination of factors including discrimination, rejection by previously supportive partners, and financial difficulties.
The GOPMAGA idea that the surgery alone worsens mental health is not only untrue it's ridiculous to anyone WHO HAS EVER ACTUALLY SPOKEN TO TRANS PEOPLE.
And this is why they don't want to speak with us and indeed, would rather silence us. They don't want us interrupting their mass murder of us with uncomfortable empiricism and facts that aren't alternative.
Can confirm , my surgeries alleviated my depression. SMH at republican idiocy
1. Lots of medical systems require that you are "suffering" before they will agree to surgeries so Trans folks have to say that they are in order to get the care they need, regardless of that level or presence of suffering.
2. The circling around "regret" or whether it makes people "happy" misses the transness in the action AND makes it really hard for folks to talk openly about their transition experiences because we have to put on a happy no-regret face. I didn't have any of my surgeries for happiness, I did it for wholeness (which includes happiness), I did it just to see what I could become. I did it because when I say I'm Trans, I mean I am always transitioning...for better or worse.
They're looking for anything negative to throw the baby out with the bath water
Who publishes a study that can be so easily misinterpreted? It sounds like the authors did some work to make clear the ways that the study had limitations, but I'm also struggling to imagine what the value of the study was if it's essentially comparing two non-comparable groups.
I’m very sus of A&M right now.
I'm not sure where the A&M Connection is. It looks like all the researchers are affiliated with Baylor or the University of Texas Medical centers in Houston and Galveston. A&M has a lot of issues, but the psychology faculty and research team were fairly progressive and open-minded. I was a researcher in the Brain and Gender Lab at A&M in the late 00's and most of the faculty I worked with are still active at the university.
I'm not sure how to think about Baylor. I remember back in the day when a number of their undergrad women were expelled because they did an interview with Playboy. They are, after all, a Baptist university.
I'm more disappointed in Journal of Sexual Medicine for publishing it. These journals providing a platform for badly-done "science" that supports anti-trans talking points need to be held accountable.
I love the math tutoring analogy. It really helps frame how the study is being misconstrued.
Oh, I guess they meant to say "...when your consultation appointments and surgeries are postponed or cancelled!"
Why is a study like this even produced? I'd like to see the actual study, but one clip of it I saw said it specifically excluded patients with pre-existing, documented mental health diagnosis. Why? Shouldn't a study like this seek to determine whether there is a quality of life improvement instead of just whether they have added mental-health diagnosis?
I probably contributed to this 'statistic', I got officially diagnosed with depression and ADHD after my surgeries. But, I could have easily have been diagnosed with those prior to the surgeries as well, surgery didn't make those conditions worse for me. If anything, they have helped boost my confidence and self-assurance!
What has actually made those conditions worse is the ever-increasing anti-trans rhetoric they keep throwing on us! Between the anti-trans stuff at the state and federal level, and specific anti-trans stuff that I've experienced directly in my own life, THAT's what prompted me to reach out for help, not the surgeries.
Because if they measured in a truly validated pre-post metric the way such studies SHOULD be, there's no ambiguity to exploit. Measuring pre transition gender satisfaction and post transition gender satisfaction and using a validated instrument like the BDI (Beck Depression Inventory) would clearly indicate levels of success similar to other studies; 98% or so with the social transition, similar with other transition components, excluding unhappiness from external sources such as discrimination and harassment from cisgender people BECAUSE THAT'S NOT A FACTOR THAT CAN BE AFFECTED BY TRANSITION, and a 95%+ incidence of decrease in BDI scores, EVEN WITH external sources of depression resulting from discrimination and harassment!
In other words, a cessation of discrimination and harassment wouldn't eliminate the experience or incidence of gender dysphoria but it would greatly increase satisfaction and positive mental health outcomes, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER BEFORE OR AFTER GENDER TRANSITION. So if those are the goals, why not try acceptance before discriminatorily banning such care for transgender Americans but enshrining gender affirming care as a basic human right for cisgender people ONLY, often in the SAME BILLS?!? And here's how we see the bad faith inherent within the thought process of the anti-Trans genocidalists; we see it made evident in ALL such eradicatory analysis over studies empirical, studies troubled or ambiguous like this one, or studies that are complete and utter rubbish, like the Cass Report, Littman's ROGD, or Blanchard's silly "Autogynephilia".
Yet the anti-Trans crowd has no intention of proposing such a practical society wide intervention, instead focusing on abolition of transition -eradication-extermination as the only acceptable Final Solution to the conundrum of our continuing existence.
Considering the vast costs to exterminating us, inclusion of our diversity and an equitable access to affirming care are real bargains but fascism has always been Reichsmark foolish, Pfennig wise.
Great work, thank you!
Very interesting and informative. Thanks for the education and the talking points to use to help others understand more clearly.
No matter what the results of any study are, they'll always claim it supports their bigotry. 𝘈𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴. They know their base hasn't read it and doesn't care to; they know they can get away with just lying outright, and the only voices calling them out on it will be those their loyal followers won't listen to anyway.
Interesting vid that discusses that very phenomenon...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqeFeqInoXc
Love both of those channels!
If they're basing it purely on ICD-10 codes then they're basically measuring clinical impressions for the purpose of billing. It's very possible that a post-surgical trans person may not meet diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria, or may prefer to omit it from their medical documentation.
GAS was life saving for my trans daughter. She finally feels like herself! She has improved mentally tremendously. I'm so happy she was able to get it before all of this B.S. hit the fan
Just one thought comes to mind... these people who want to attack people in the basis of one study are Just fucking stupid because that's not how scientific research works. (Which it should have never been accepted for review without major fixes. Literally no conclusions can be made from it. Except that some researchers attempted to do research and done it very badly.
You can bury them in data and facts and they only look at ways to weaponize it😤
we love deriving if-then statements from a study which doesnt look at before-and-after surgery rates of depression. as you said, there are so many questions it just ~doesn't answer~ or even seem to indicate should be asked, but yknow, should ? which is aaalways a good thing from the field of study about asking and an answering questions. rwers use good science challenge (FAILED) (APPARENTLY IMPOSSIBLE)
No doubt I felt better after my gas But that was always after recovering... it's not like you get a surgery and then bam back everything is wonderful.