Finnish research: Number of people regretting gender change increases
An LGBT activist. Photo EPA, Sashenka Gutierrez
Northern Europe
More and more transgender people are regretting their gender transition. The results of a major Finnish study reveal that the risk of regret is underestimated.
The Finnish research group followed 1359 patients who started taking cross-sex hormones between 1996 and 2019. The study found that 7.9 per cent of them stopped this treatment.
During this period, the risk of regret appears to have increased. Not only do more and more people start transitioning, but more and more people later regret it as well. Between 2013 and 2019, almost three times as many people ended hormone treatment as between 1996 and 2005. In addition, the number of patients quitting hormones within two years also appears to have increased: from 1.3 per cent in the early period to 2.9 per cent in the more recent years.
One striking change is that today, teenage girls, in particular, identify as transgender. They report to gender clinics at a younger age and face mental health problems more often than before. Almost half of those starting hormones are under 23 years old; two-thirds of them are women.
Counselling
According to Prof Riittakerttu Kaltiala, the psychiatrist who led the study, the results make it clear that detransition is "a real and possibly underestimated phenomenon". She points out that the results differ from the low regret rates (1 or 2 per cent) assumed by many gender clinics. According to her, these low figures are based on outdated and flawed research from the 1960s to 2010.
The new research has important implications for counselling and care for gender dysphoria, according to the researchers. According to Kaltiala, good care requires a careful, tailored approach. The Finnish psychiatrist stresses the importance of studying why patients stop hormone treatments. This will help better predict who is suitable for this radical treatment. She also wants there to be appropriate care for those who stop treatment that has caused irreversible changes in their previously healthy bodies.
Kaltiala is an expert in paediatric gender medicine. She opened one of the first paediatric gender clinics in Finland in 2011 but now questions the Dutch Protocol: the Amsterdam-developed treatment of gender dysphoric teenagers with puberty blockers. This method is still used in the Netherlands, but is now no longer used in Finland and some other countries. Kaltiala is an important voice in the international debate on puberty blockers.
This article was translated by CNE.news and published by the Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad on September 2, 2024
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