A new study finds that there is not enough evidence to suggest that bodily gender transition helps people with gender dysphoria.
Activists and politicians call this “gender-affirming care.” It means affirming that someone’s gender is different than their biology and approving biopharmaceutical drugs and surgery to alter the body to appear like the other gender. Many European countries have concluded that medical intervention is risky and that the benefits do not outweigh the risks. A new study validates that.
“The conclusions of the systematic reviews of evidence for adolescents are consistent with long-term adult studies, which failed to show credible improvements in mental health and suggested a pattern of treatment-associated harms. Three recent papers examined the studies that underpin the practice of youth gender transition and found the research to be deeply flawed. Evidence does not support the notion that “affirmative care” of today’s adolescents is net beneficial.”
The authors conclude that this is a high-stakes debate and it should not come at the expense of using experimental methods on children. Instead, “the field must stop relying on social justice arguments and return to the time-honored principles of evidence-based medicine.”
