Whistleblowers allege that the NHS in Great Britain covered up a large spike in suicides after restrictions on trans care. The number of suicides appears to have been omitted from the Cass Review.
The callousness of those who claim to have children's interests in mind is an extreme example of hypocrisy both in the UK and the US by politicians who in reality simply either hate trans people or using us in order to get or keep power and money. Certainly the "news" media in many instances, e.g. FOX, and the silence of so many makes all them essentially complicit. Keeping the electorate uninformed or feeding them both disinformation and misinformation serves their quite evil purposes.
Absolutely, the evidence was already in, and lo and behold, ignoring it has tragic consequences. What a bunch of absolute garbage. We must fight back, for the truth, for people's very lives. I'm appalled as I can be.
They know what they're doing is wrong, or they'd feel no need to cover it up- and they're making a conscious choice to 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 doing wrong, or they'd have reversed course when the damage they were doing became apparent.
The way that trans youth have been treated by governments and society - in multiple countries - is deplorable and should leave many people very ashamed of themselves. These youths have been used as a political football for way too long. There seems to be no other area of medical care that has been so heavily politicized. Witness the banning of youth trans care in about half the states, mainly southern states, whose area to a large degree recreates the boundaries of the old Confederacy. This is shameful and runs contrary to the endorsements of major medical organizations. Progressive states and countries can, and should, work as hard as needed to keep this care legal and available in their locales.
I have recently left a "Rapid response" comment to the infamous Finnish study on the suicide mortality of young people experiencing gender dysphoria in Finland, conducted by Riittakerttu Kaltiala and others and published in BMJ Mental Health (2024). My full reply, along with replies by researches criticizing the statistical methods, can be read here on the journal's website: https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/27/1/e300940.responses
To summarize a major shortcoming, the Finnish study -- which is cited in the Cass review as evidence for low suicide mortality -- claimed to compare the all-cause mortality and suicide rates between individuals aged under 23 who were referred to gender identity clinics in Finland between 1996 and 2019 and a control group. However, the paper failed to mention that before 2011, minors were generally not granted referrals to gender identity clinics in Finland. Consequently, any mortalities among the gender-incongruent youth under 18 years old would not be associated in the statistics with referrals to gender identity clinics but -- depending on the method of data collection -- might even be included in the control group.
This is a considerable limitation, which, if acknowledged, might have meant that the authors would have had to admit that the data available to them is too limited to be used to draw reliable conclusions on the connection between suicide mortality rates and gender dysphoria among gender-incongruent youth. However, the study actually did find that the suicide mortality was higher in the group that had contacted gender identity clinics, but this was explained away in the conclusions as a consequence of mental health problems rather than (untreated) gender dysphoria, and it is this conclusion that has received wide-spread attention and media coverage rather than the actual results.
Unfortunately, the authors, who are notified of each "Rapid response", have not replied to my concerns.
As a doctoral researcher, I cannot comment whether these omissions are intentional. But as a private individual and a former gender dysphoric youth who was denied access to care, I think that it is an extremely brutal game that is being played on the lives of trans youth in Europe and the USA by researchers who have decided to embrace the anti-gender movement and dedicate their careers and academic credibility for its furtherance.
Interestingly, another study that looked at the suicide mortality of transgender individuals in Denmark, published in 2023 -- and not cited in the Cass review --, found a significantly elevated rate of suicide attempts and suicides among the transgender group: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/28/health/transgender-suicide-risk/index.html. Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), this paper has received far less attention than the Finnish article.
The problematic article:
Ruuska, S. M., Tuisku, K., Holttinen, T., & Kaltiala, R. (2024). All-cause and suicide mortalities among adolescents and young adults who contacted specialised gender identity services in Finland in 1996-2019: a register study. BMJ mental health, 27(1). (https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/27/1/e300940)
The Danish article:
Erlangsen A, Jacobsen AL, Ranning A, Delamare AL, Nordentoft M, Frisch M. Transgender Identity and Suicide Attempts and Mortality in Denmark. JAMA. 2023;329(24):2145–2153. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.8627 (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2806531)
Thank you for your analysis. I’ll take a closer look. As a mum of a 17 year old trans daughter we’re in the middle of all this (live in UK). She is doing really well right now but if things continue as they are there’s no guarantee it will remain so. Social transition and acceptance at school/college, peers and family means she’s getting on with her life. I am actively involved as an ally and campaigner for a charity here supporting families. We have our work cut out once a new government is in place to try to halt what has started in the NHS as a result of Cass and this hateful Conservative government
I believe that support from family and peers can really make the difference and carry one through the setbacks that come from society. I'm not saying that it does for everyone, but being left alone as a teenager to stand against a system that is unempathetic or even hostile towards your needs is a world apart from receiving support from people who acknowledge and accept you for who you are.
When it comes the risk of suicide, I think it's mostly about avoiding hopelessness. This is so much easier when there are people around you affirming that the future will eventually be better.
Dr. Cass found a way to get her data - and proved why everyone else said it would be catastrophically unethical to do so. ffs I'm horrified at how far these people will go for a political wedge issue
Egotistical sociopaths who don’t give two shites about anyone but themsrlves and their ‘reputation’. It sickens me to know how much these kids & their families have suffered, only to be swept under the rug.
This just makes me sick. I can’t believe an entire nation has fallen under the spell of an obvious kook, and it further sickens me that she came to the US and is apparently helping the Governor of Florida with his anti-LGBTQ mission of hatred. When is someone going to investigate her? What exactly are her Bona fides in this field? Who died and made her emperor?
The callousness of those who claim to have children's interests in mind is an extreme example of hypocrisy both in the UK and the US by politicians who in reality simply either hate trans people or using us in order to get or keep power and money. Certainly the "news" media in many instances, e.g. FOX, and the silence of so many makes all them essentially complicit. Keeping the electorate uninformed or feeding them both disinformation and misinformation serves their quite evil purposes.
Absolutely, the evidence was already in, and lo and behold, ignoring it has tragic consequences. What a bunch of absolute garbage. We must fight back, for the truth, for people's very lives. I'm appalled as I can be.
They know what they're doing is wrong, or they'd feel no need to cover it up- and they're making a conscious choice to 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 doing wrong, or they'd have reversed course when the damage they were doing became apparent.
The only word for that is 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘭.
The way that trans youth have been treated by governments and society - in multiple countries - is deplorable and should leave many people very ashamed of themselves. These youths have been used as a political football for way too long. There seems to be no other area of medical care that has been so heavily politicized. Witness the banning of youth trans care in about half the states, mainly southern states, whose area to a large degree recreates the boundaries of the old Confederacy. This is shameful and runs contrary to the endorsements of major medical organizations. Progressive states and countries can, and should, work as hard as needed to keep this care legal and available in their locales.
"whose area to a large degree recreates the boundaries of the old Confederacy" <-- More rural areas than that.
Thank you for this article.
I have recently left a "Rapid response" comment to the infamous Finnish study on the suicide mortality of young people experiencing gender dysphoria in Finland, conducted by Riittakerttu Kaltiala and others and published in BMJ Mental Health (2024). My full reply, along with replies by researches criticizing the statistical methods, can be read here on the journal's website: https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/27/1/e300940.responses
To summarize a major shortcoming, the Finnish study -- which is cited in the Cass review as evidence for low suicide mortality -- claimed to compare the all-cause mortality and suicide rates between individuals aged under 23 who were referred to gender identity clinics in Finland between 1996 and 2019 and a control group. However, the paper failed to mention that before 2011, minors were generally not granted referrals to gender identity clinics in Finland. Consequently, any mortalities among the gender-incongruent youth under 18 years old would not be associated in the statistics with referrals to gender identity clinics but -- depending on the method of data collection -- might even be included in the control group.
This is a considerable limitation, which, if acknowledged, might have meant that the authors would have had to admit that the data available to them is too limited to be used to draw reliable conclusions on the connection between suicide mortality rates and gender dysphoria among gender-incongruent youth. However, the study actually did find that the suicide mortality was higher in the group that had contacted gender identity clinics, but this was explained away in the conclusions as a consequence of mental health problems rather than (untreated) gender dysphoria, and it is this conclusion that has received wide-spread attention and media coverage rather than the actual results.
Unfortunately, the authors, who are notified of each "Rapid response", have not replied to my concerns.
As a doctoral researcher, I cannot comment whether these omissions are intentional. But as a private individual and a former gender dysphoric youth who was denied access to care, I think that it is an extremely brutal game that is being played on the lives of trans youth in Europe and the USA by researchers who have decided to embrace the anti-gender movement and dedicate their careers and academic credibility for its furtherance.
Interestingly, another study that looked at the suicide mortality of transgender individuals in Denmark, published in 2023 -- and not cited in the Cass review --, found a significantly elevated rate of suicide attempts and suicides among the transgender group: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/28/health/transgender-suicide-risk/index.html. Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), this paper has received far less attention than the Finnish article.
The problematic article:
Ruuska, S. M., Tuisku, K., Holttinen, T., & Kaltiala, R. (2024). All-cause and suicide mortalities among adolescents and young adults who contacted specialised gender identity services in Finland in 1996-2019: a register study. BMJ mental health, 27(1). (https://mentalhealth.bmj.com/content/27/1/e300940)
The Danish article:
Erlangsen A, Jacobsen AL, Ranning A, Delamare AL, Nordentoft M, Frisch M. Transgender Identity and Suicide Attempts and Mortality in Denmark. JAMA. 2023;329(24):2145–2153. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.8627 (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2806531)
Thank you for your analysis. I’ll take a closer look. As a mum of a 17 year old trans daughter we’re in the middle of all this (live in UK). She is doing really well right now but if things continue as they are there’s no guarantee it will remain so. Social transition and acceptance at school/college, peers and family means she’s getting on with her life. I am actively involved as an ally and campaigner for a charity here supporting families. We have our work cut out once a new government is in place to try to halt what has started in the NHS as a result of Cass and this hateful Conservative government
It sounds wonderful what you are doing!
I believe that support from family and peers can really make the difference and carry one through the setbacks that come from society. I'm not saying that it does for everyone, but being left alone as a teenager to stand against a system that is unempathetic or even hostile towards your needs is a world apart from receiving support from people who acknowledge and accept you for who you are.
When it comes the risk of suicide, I think it's mostly about avoiding hopelessness. This is so much easier when there are people around you affirming that the future will eventually be better.
I sounds like you're doing the right things for your daughter. Supportive family is critically important.
Thank you. We’re doing our best.
You can't ask for more than that!
The ruling class is populated by psychopaths.
Dr. Cass found a way to get her data - and proved why everyone else said it would be catastrophically unethical to do so. ffs I'm horrified at how far these people will go for a political wedge issue
Egotistical sociopaths who don’t give two shites about anyone but themsrlves and their ‘reputation’. It sickens me to know how much these kids & their families have suffered, only to be swept under the rug.
Thank you Mira and condolences to Erin.
So sorry for your loss Erin 🙏
This is such important - if distressing - reporting, and your delicacy is appreciated. Thank you Mira!
This just makes me sick. I can’t believe an entire nation has fallen under the spell of an obvious kook, and it further sickens me that she came to the US and is apparently helping the Governor of Florida with his anti-LGBTQ mission of hatred. When is someone going to investigate her? What exactly are her Bona fides in this field? Who died and made her emperor?
The cass review is just hate. These whistleblowers are brave for helping to reveal that.
This is one of the most disgusting things I've ever read. It's almost unfathomable. I say almost, except, this is the world we live in now.