PAUL MCHUGH: Transgender [sic] Surgery Isn’t the Solution: A drastic physical change doesn’t address underlying psycho-social troubles. The article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal here.
Psychiatrists obviously must challenge the solipsistic concept that what is in the mind cannot be questioned. Disorders of consciousness, after all, represent psychiatry’s domain; declaring them off-limits would eliminate the field. Many will recall how, in the 1990s, an accusation of parental sex abuse of children was deemed unquestionable by the solipsists of the “recovered memory” craze.
You won’t hear it from those championing transgender [sic] equality, but controlled and follow-up studies reveal fundamental problems with this movement. . . .
A 2011 study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden [PDF] produced the most illuminating results yet regarding the transgendered [sic], evidence that should give advocates pause. The long-term study—up to 30 years—followed 324 people who had sex-reassignment surgery. The study revealed that beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered [sic] began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable nontransgender [sic] population. This disturbing result has as yet no explanation but probably reflects the growing sense of isolation reported by the aging transgendered [sic] after surgery. The high suicide rate certainly challenges the surgery prescription.
And yet, such voluntary third-party mutilations (known in the field as surgeries) are increasingly being funded by the state. Meanwhile, voluntary reparative therapy for people who wish to be heterosexual is increasingly being banned.