Source: catholicnewsagency.com<\/p>\n
Washington D.C., Nov 28, 2019 \/ 10:00 am (CNA)<\/span>.- A reporter and a researcher who reviewed literature on \u201cgender affirmation\u201d have raised concerns about growing political and academic support for life-altering surgical procedures.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t know, we don\u2019t know, we don\u2019t know,\u201d Madeleine Kearns, a William F. Buckley fellow in political journalism at the National Review Institute, told CNA of the long-term results of \u201cgender affirmation\u201d practices.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so if the answer keeps being we don\u2019t know, it does raise the rather glaring question that why on earth are we doing it? What evidence suggests this is necessary?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Kearns wrote a\u00a0Nov. 21 article in National Review, \u201cThe Tragedy of the \u2018Trans\u2019 Child,\u201d\u00a0which discussed cases of gender dysphoria, as well as efforts to influence the debate over \u201cgender affirmation\u201d practices.<\/p>\n There are three main responses to a child exhibiting signs of gender confusion, Kearns wrote in National Review. Two of them are \u201ctalk therapy\u201d to find out what underlying issues might be influencing the child\u2019s confusion, and \u201cwatchful waiting\u201d to see if children \u201cgrow out\u201d of the stage.<\/p>\n The third route is so-called \u201cgender affirmation,\u201d which presents a radical departure from previously-accepted medical practice, Kearns said. It involves practices which could seriously or permanently alter a person\u2019s development.<\/p>\n \u201cGender affirmation\u201d could involve having a child\u2019s community reinforce their desired sex to them\u2014\u201ca form of social-psychological treatment,\u201d Kearns said\u2014or administering puberty-blocking drugs or cross-sex hormones followed by puberty-blocking drugs. Surgical intervention would be the most drastic action, she said.<\/p>\n Kearns shared her conclusions with CNA from researching various studies that purportedly showed minimal or even salutary effects of gender-affirmation on the mental health of children with gender dysphoria.<\/p>\n Many of these studies, she told CNA, are actually very limited in scope, because of the novelty of \u201cgender affirmation\u201d techniques, or they disregard other standard research safeguards, such as control groups.<\/p>\n Society still does not know with certainty how a child will feel 10 to 15 years after gender affirmation procedure, Kearns said.<\/p>\n A recent study claimed that sex-reassignment surgery might actually benefit recipients in the long-term. The American Journal of Psychiatry in October published the results of a Swedish study that aimed to discover the rates of mental health treatment for persons diagnosed with \u201cgender incongruence\u201d who had also undergone sex-reassignment surgery.<\/p>\n Persons with \u201cgender incongruence\u201d in the study had significantly higher rates of \u201ca mood and anxiety disorder health care visit\u201d\u2014around six times that of the general population, the study said.<\/p>\n Yet it was another claim in the study that made headlines\u2014that the rates of mental health visits among persons with gender incongruence who also had gender-affirmation surgery actually declined over time.<\/p>\n The Swedish study claimed specifically that mental health problems declined after a period of ten years post-surgery.<\/p>\n That claim was picked up in the press as possible support for gender affirmation. \u201cWhen transgender people undergo sex-reassignment surgery, the beneficial effect on their mental health is still evident \u2014 and increasing \u2014 years later, a Swedish study suggests,\u201d Reuters reported earlier this month.<\/p>\n But the sample size in the Swedish study was extremely small, Professor Mark Regnerus, sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a senior fellow at the Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture,\u00a0subsequently wrote in the online journal The Public Discourse.<\/p>\n The Swedish study collected data of more than 9.7 million people. Only 2,679 were diagnosed with \u201cgender incongruence,\u201d and of these, 1,018 people had undergone sex-reassignment surgery, he noted.<\/p>\n Out of this population of just over 1,000, only 19 people had gone more than 10 years after having surgery. Thus, the study was basing this claim upon a national sample of 19 people.<\/p>\n Regnerus, in his Public Discourse piece, put the numbers in perspective: \u201cif a mere three additional cases among these 19 had sought mental health treatment in 2015, there would appear to be no discernible overall effect of surgery on subsequent mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important to keep some perspective here\u2014how national debates and discourses are being driven by quite small shares of the population,\u201d Regnerus said in a written statement to CNA.<\/p>\n And it is these types of studies that are fueling the rise of gender-affirmation of children\u2014despite a lack of deep knowledge about the effects of these surgeries ten years down the road, Kearns said.<\/p>\n \u201cAgain, it\u2019s important to note that the studies related to children are very, very new,\u201d Kearns said. Children, especially those supportive of gender affirmation, may answer that they feel great after surgery.<\/p>\n Yet in 2016, Paul R. McHugh, M.D., the former chief of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Lawrence S. Mayer, M.B., M.S., Ph.D., then a scholar in residence in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine\u2019s psychiatry department, reviewed hundreds of scientific articles on sexual orientation and gender identity issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCompared to the general population, adults who have undergone sex-reassignment surgery continue to have a higher risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes,\u201d they concluded.<\/p>\n And as to their condition ten years later, \u201cnobody has a crystal ball,\u201d Kearns said. And with the adult population, there is only \u201cvery ambiguous research.\u201d<\/p>\n Many serious medical studies include a \u201ccontrol group\u201d for comparison\u2019s sake. However, some studies used to tout the positive effects of gender affirmation \u201ccompletely disregard that,\u201d she said. \u201cThey don\u2019t really tell you anything except for the foregone conclusions of the ideologues running them and funding them.\u201d<\/p>\n The push to use limited or unsound research in favor of gender affirmation should concern everyone, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis should not be a partisan issue. This is an issue of scientific integrity,\u201d Kearns said. \u201cThis is not secular versus religious, this is not Democrat versus Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I really do think that we are living through this tremendous medical scandal which our children\u2019s children will hang their heads in shame about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2490,273,81,434,166,53],"class_list":["post-3110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sex-reassignment","tag-gender-affirming","tag-health","tag-research","tag-sex-reassignment","tag-surgery","tag-treatment"],"yoast_head":"\n