Hi friend, this factsheet contains everything you need to know about a variety of issues ranging from gender dysphoria to hormone treatments, along with a fact-based perspective on the medical and sociological legitimacy of trans people.
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Medical Consensus
An incomplete list of the reputable scientific & social organizations which affirm the validity of transgender people (that transness is not an illness, that trans people are deserving of respect and equal rights, etc). This also serves as a list of the institutions which recognize the difference between sex and gender.
* American Psychological Association
* American Medical Association
* American Psychoanalytic Association
* Human Rights Campaign
* American Academy of Pediatrics
* American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians
* Royal College of Psychiatrists
* United Nations
* United Kingdom’s National Health Service
The following organizations have also made public statements expressing support for transgender people, the details and citations of which are compiled by Transcsend Legal
* American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
* American Academy of Family Physicians
* American Academy of Nursing
* American College of Nurse-Midwives
* American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
* American College of Physicians
* American Counseling Association
* American Osteopathic Association
* American Psychiatric Association
* American Public Health Association
* Endocrine Society
* National Association of Social Workers
* National Commission on Correctional Health Care
* World Medical Association
READ MORE:
* American Psychological association
* World Health Organization
* Stanford Medical
* American Pediatrics Association
* National Institutes of Health
* Canadian Institute of Health Research
* Scientific American
* American Psychiatric Association
* American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
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Medical Transition
Medical transition (including sex reassignment surgery) decreases dysphoria, suicide attempts, and improves depression and anxiety
* Cornell University
* ENORMOUS meta-analysis on transgender people and the effect gender transition has on their mental health
* Of 56 studies, 52 indicated transitioning has a positive effect on the mental health of transgender people and 4 indicated it had mixed or no results.
* ZERO studies indicated gender transitioning has negative results
* Murad et al. 10
* ANOTHER meta-analysis of 28 studies on transition and hormones
* Sex reassignment/hormonal improvements:
* 80% of individuals reported significant improvement in dysphoria
* 78% of individuals reported significant improvement in psychological symptoms
* 72% of individuals reported significant improvement in sexual function
* overall quality of life was found to have increased significantly
* Lower quality evidence, see methodology. Still significant and helpful findings regardless.
* De Vries et al. 14 (non-paywall)
* Longitudinal study on the effectiveness of puberty suppression, hormones, and later sex reassignment surgery on trans individuals in improving mental outcomes
* 55 trans youth (22 transfem and 33 transmasc) were followed over an 8 year period from before starting blockers (mean aged 13.6 years)
* While many studies like this compare those after treatment to those before treatment, this study also made comparisons to the general population and still found that psychological function was on par or better.
* “After gender reassignment, in young adulthood, the GD was alleviated and psychological functioning had steadily improved. Wellbeing was similar to or better than same-age young adults from the general population.”
* The Endocrine Society 15
* “A new study has confirmed that transgender youth often have mental health problems and that their depression and anxiety improve greatly with recognition and treatment of gender dysphoria”
* Nobili 18
* Longitudinal meta-analysis which indicates transgender people have a lower quality of life than the general population.
* However, that quality of life raises dramatically with ‘Gender Affirming Treatment’, the nature of which is detailed extensively in-text.
* Grift et al. 17
* “Hormone-based interventions and surgery were followed by improvements in body satisfaction. The level of psychological symptoms and the degree of body satisfaction at baseline were significantly associated with body satisfaction at follow-up”
* “scores were significantly lower in all of the follow-up groups when compared with clinical admission, showing a decrease in GD”
Long-term Follow-ups:
* Weyers et al. 09 (non-paywall)
* In long-term follow-ups, trans women "function well on a physical, emotional, psychological and social level"
* However, they have problems when it comes to arousal, lubrication, and pain - a minor trade-off for the previously mentioned well-being measures
* Ruppin & Pfäfflin 15 (non-paywall)
* Small sample size but still useful
* Trans people reported being just fine in long-term follow-up, as well as having reduced gender dysphoria
* Johansson et al. 10 (non-paywall)
* 60 trans people in Sweden in 5 year follow-ups
* No one regretted SRS or being trans
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Social Transition
Social transition improves depression, anxiety, and psychological function
* Journal of Adolescent Health: Connolly et al. 16
* Analyzes consensus on the effectiveness of social transition (total people n = 301,500)
* “Gender-affirming medical therapy and supported social transition in childhood have been shown to correlate with improved psychological functioning for gender-variant children and adolescents.”
* American Academy of Pediatrics: Olson et al. 16
* Socially transitioned transgender children who are supported in their gender identity have:
* Normative levels of depression
* Minimal elevations in anxiety
* Lower rates of internalizing psychopathology (a spectrum of conditions characterized by negative emotion) then non-socially transitioned people
* Trujillo et al. 17
* Helping trans individuals cope with harassment and rejection, particularly by drawing on social support, may promote better mental health, which could help reduce suicidality in this population.
* Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Durwood et al. 16
* Children who socially transition report levels of depression and anxiety which closely match levels reported by cisgender children, indicating social transition massively decreases the risk factor of both.
* Feeny et al. 20
* “Among the TGNB youth who experienced bathroom discrimination, 85% reported depressive mood and 60% seriously considered suicide”
* “preventing TGNB youths from accessing appropriate bathrooms is associated with harmful mental health indicators”
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Puberty Blockers
Puberty blockers are safe, well-studied, completely reversible, endorsed by credible medical and endocrinological associations, and effective at reducing dysphoria, anxiety, and depression.
* Public Broadcasting Service News: Korry 16
* Everything you need to know about puberty blockers
* Full-blown puberty is irreversible
* Taking a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist, secretion of the sex hormones can be stopped and the onset of puberty suppressed so that the body does not develop secondary sex characteristics
* This has been done safely for decades to suppress sex hormones in children who develop too early, a condition known as precocious puberty. Suppressors have also been used to treat endometriosis, uterine fibroids, and prostate cancer.
* It was only in 2008 that the Endocrine Society approved puberty suppressors as a treatment for transgender adolescents as young as 12 years old. The Society, with members in more than 100 countries, has since declared that the intervention appears to be safe and effective. In 2011 the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), also issued Standards of Care for the treatment of patients with gender dysphoria, which include puberty suppression.
* Human Rights Campaign et al. 16
* BIG report on trans youth and transition
* Endorsed by the Human Rights Campaign, American Academy of Pediatrics & the American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians which affirms the validity of transgender youth, encourages appropriate care and respect for their transness and provides resources on how to do so.
* Outlines TYPES OF TRANSITION: hormone blockers are the ONLY treatment used on adolescents and are COMPLETELY reversible.
* International Journal of Transgender Health 2020
* Key finding is “that provision of puberty delaying medications
to adolescents with gender dysphoria is not experimental,
* Hormone blockers are not new
* “Since the mid 1990s, puberty delaying medications have been prescribed to some adolescents (not prepubertal children) with severe and persistent gender dysphoria, in cases in which such distress was aggravated by pubertal development.”
* “The Royal College of Psychiatrists, in 1998, recommended delaying pu