Thread by @buttonslives

One of the central claims behind “gender-affirming care” is that medical transition improves mental health.

A major new longitudinal study on adults has corrected the flaws in earlier research and found that medical transition is likely not what is driving those improvements.

For years, proponents have cited studies claiming mental health benefits as the primary justification for these treatments. But that claim has long rested on weak evidence, as systematic reviews have repeatedly found.

Much of the past research was observational, relying on small clinic cohorts of 30–70 patients followed for only 6–12 months. Those studies fail to control for other factors known to improve mental health and often capture temporary relief, not lasting improvement.

This new study directly addressed those weaknesses.

Researchers in Hong Kong followed 178 patients over 5 years, testing whether mental health improvements reported in earlier studies could actually be explained by psychosocial factors rather than medical intervention.

The results: once psychosocial factors were controlled for, neither surgery nor cross-sex hormones significantly reduced depression or anxiety. Coping style and social support were actually the strongest predictors of mental health.

The study supports the view that gender-related distress is not a distinct biological condition, but a manifestation of untreated mental health struggles that hormones and surgery simply cannot resolve.

Read my latest in @CityJournal on the groundbreaking study challenging the claim that “gender-affirming” medical treatments provide lasting mental health benefits:
city-journal.org/article/trans-…