DebunkThis

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Debunking pseudoscience, myths, and spurious hogwash since 2010.

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Debunk This: The Scientific Evidence for Gender Transition Therapies is Weak (unherd.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi, everyone. The author here claims a couple of things I'd like people to check out:

That European countries are generally reluctant to endorse gender reassignment treatments due to insufficient evidence
That there are no large scale studies / reviews that find good evidence in favor of gender reassignment treatments

Thanks in advance!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That European countries are generally reluctant to endorse gender reassignment treatments due to insufficient evidence

That is at least half-true. E.g. Sweden did mostly stop using hormones with minors (iIrc under 16). Namely Karolinska - one of the most reputable university clinics in the world - did and he country's health advisory board published restrictive guidelines. Reluctant really is a good word to describe the current situation, puberty blockers are still used, but only in few cases. Afaik there's a few similar developments in other countries but I am not sure it's Europe in general.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230208-sweden-puts-brakes-on-treatments-for-trans-minors

That there are no large scale studies / reviews that find good evidence in favor of gender reassignment treatments

A study from Karolinska (well at least the press release for it) also complains a lack of data:

https://news.ki.se/systematic-review-on-outcomes-of-hormonal-treatment-in-youths-with-gender-dysphoria

But I'd say the lack of data is to be expected. The number of people seeking gender affirming care skyrocketed in recent years. So we obviously don't have long-term data that applies very well. People who already came out as transgender 30 years ago may not tell that much about people who do now.

So we unfortunately have a situation where we have to make decisions under uncertainty. But that doesn't change that not doing anything can be worse than doing something you're not 100% will work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Great answer, thank you!

I was surprised to read that Sweden legalized gender reassignment treatments way back in 1972! In that country, at least, it has been realtively socially acceptable for some time already.

The politicization of the issue appears to have really muddied the waters, but at least it's now being studied properly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I was surprised to read that Sweden legalized gender reassignment treatments way back in 1972! In that country, at least, it has been realtively socially acceptable for some time already.

We've had that in Germany for a long time as well. The first "transsexuals law" was passed in 1980.

The issue is that back then it was about clear cases. I.e. adults who had been diagnosed a long time ago and who had undergone surgery. Hence the legalities merely followed medicine and the "if you have a penis, you're a man" conclusion still worked perfectly.

The current culture war isn't really around those "classic" transgender people. Even transphobic people J.K.Rowling accept these people with their new gender. But now we have a lot of people who change their gender without surgery and people who change it at a much younger age. That makes issue less clear cut.

Anyway, yes, the politics are a huge problem and indeed muddying the water here. Making medical decisions outside a doctor's office leads to problems.