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Transgender people who start their hormones as teenagers have “far better” mental health than if they wait until adulthood, new research says.
Experts have found that transgender people who begin hormone treatment in adolescence had fewer suicidal thoughts, were less likely to experience major mental health disorders and had fewer problems with substance abuse than those who started hormones later in life.
The study, which was led by the Stanford University School of Medicine, gathered data from the largest-ever survey of US transgender adults where 27,715 people responded in 2015.
Researchers found that, as well as fewer mental health concerns when taking the drugs as teenagers, those who took the drugs at any age had better mental health than those who wanted them but had never received them.
Of the people surveyed, 21,598 reported they had received the hormones they wanted. Of these people, 119 began hormones at age 14 or 15; 362 at age 16 and 17 and 12,157 following their 18th birthday.
Some 8,860 people surveyed said they wanted but never received hormone therapy and acted as the control group for the study.
Odds of severe psychological distress were reduced by 222 per cent, 153 per cent and 81 per cent for those who began hormones in early adolescence, late adolescence and adulthood, respectively.
Odds of feeling suicidal in the previous year were 135 per cent lower in those who began hormones in early adolescence, 62 per cent lower in those who began in late adolescence and 21 per cent lower in those who began as adults, compared with the control group.
Dr Jack Turban, lead author on the study and expert in paediatric and adolescent psychiatry at Stanford Medicine, said: “This study is particularly relevant now because many state legislatures are introducing bills that would outlaw this kind of care for transgender youth.
“We are adding to the evidence base that shows why gender-affirming care is beneficial from a mental health perspective.”
In the UK, hormone drugs can only be given to people from the age of 16 who have been on puberty blockers for at least 12 months.
Last September, the UK Court of Appeal overturned a judgment that children under the age of 16 considering gender reassignment were unlikely to be mature enough to give informed consent to be prescribed puberty-blocking drugs.
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/transgender-hormones-teenager-mental-health-b1991724.html
Rosie same sex relationships are not a purely human thing I'm afraid
Yes, that's my point though, many humans express our gender but we don't prove it by showing our sex
Galaxy
Sex segregation terrifies you? That must be really difficult. Are you saying you wouldnt trust those who run refuges to provide women only services.
No I completely trust the people who run refuges to properly risk assess anyone entering the refuge
Straw man again!
I can see how it is necessary though when ackowledging that asking for the seperation of natal women would necessitate them looking and presenting in a certain way is absolutely unchallengeable.
So you trust them to risk assess but you dont trust them to sex segregate their services. It's not a straw man. The next legal challenge is around refuges.
Rosie51
VioletSky
It's not even a solely human thing, just look at birds, there are lots of normal natural ways that Influence attractiveness, for some it's muscle, or speed or strength, for others it's plumage or beautiful displays, for still others it's smells...
For humans we use all of the aboveI'm not sure I get the relevance of this but those attributes and displays you mention are in order to get a mate of the opposite sex for procreation. You don't get peacocks displaying to other peacocks with the expectation of nesting together.
Peacocks fall in love with all sorts of things- like a petrol pump and display.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-391127/Peacock-falls-love-petrol-pump.html
There are lots of other things on Youtube.
VioletSky
Rosie same sex relationships are not a purely human thing I'm afraid
Yes, that's my point though, many humans express our gender but we don't prove it by showing our sex
Why are you 'afraid'. My friends are in a same sex (sex not gender) marriage and have two children.
Of course there are homosexual animals, that pair of male penguins was quite lovely, their strong bond to each other was so touching.
And what of us that don't believe in this gender concept? I display my personality, it's unique to me, not in a grouping with others. My sex however links me to every other woman on this planet, we share something that is unique to us as a group. There will be differences, some will be infertile for example before anyone jumps in, but my sexed body has more in common with a woman in a remote African village than it has with Bill who lives next door, or even the husband I share my life with.
Galaxy
So you trust them to risk assess but you dont trust them to sex segregate their services. It's not a straw man. The next legal challenge is around refuges.
Galaxy the law as it is applies to females. The discussion is about who passes as a woman. Under the law transwomen are not females even if the have a GRC they can be banned from somewhere. That means they are not female (something I have never claimed). They are however women because woman is a term for gender used in everyday life. I am unlikely in everyday life to need to know someone's sex so I accept their gender by their appearnce and what they tell me.
You apparently don't. I've asked you to explain to me how transwomen would be seperated from natal women in every day life and you have given me legal cases, possibly because you realise appearance is the only way and you don't want to admit it.
The truth is both in humans and animals there is no firm biological distinction between males and females and we have all found different ways to express that, that doesn't relate directly to sexual organs themselves.
We show our gender not our sex
Rosie51
VioletSky
Rosie same sex relationships are not a purely human thing I'm afraid
Yes, that's my point though, many humans express our gender but we don't prove it by showing our sexWhy are you 'afraid'. My friends are in a same sex (sex not gender) marriage and have two children.
Of course there are homosexual animals, that pair of male penguins was quite lovely, their strong bond to each other was so touching.
And what of us that don't believe in this gender concept? I display my personality, it's unique to me, not in a grouping with others. My sex however links me to every other woman on this planet, we share something that is unique to us as a group. There will be differences, some will be infertile for example before anyone jumps in, but my sexed body has more in common with a woman in a remote African village than it has with Bill who lives next door, or even the husband I share my life with.
Some people don't believe the earth is a sphere doesn't mean it isn't. Gender is there, believe in what you will, identify with who you like. It is still there. Become non-binary if you wish that seems to me to be the right course for those who don't want gender to be involved in their life. Gender is still there.
It seems to me that the anti-transwomen are so desperate they will try to have both sides of the argument. In doing so they are willing to call people who support transpeople any sort of slur they can lay their hands on. Which proves I suppose how desperate they are. For the record I abhor gender norms. However I recognise that most of society operates using them. Ideally they would not exist and I think that is one of the reasons many young people are choosing to be non-binary. However this idea that designating people by sex would somehow remove them is just plain ridiculous. Once you start saying these people are women and those people aren't you bring in judgement values, executing those judgements requires either, that every single person carries with them at all times documentary evidence of their sex, or you judge by appearance - by gender norms.
But it's not a matter of judgement whether a woman is a woman. It's a matter of fact. It is not a slur on anyone to say that. Also, knowing that sex and gender are different is not anti-trans, so please stop with the false equivalence, and ascribing beliefs to those who don't hold them. The sly digs (eg 'so desperate' do nothing to add to your argument, either. It is that sort of unpleasantness that makes reasoned debate difficult.)
There is no need (for the hundredth time) to expect people to carry evidence of their sex. In fact it is only since self-id has created problems with (some) transpeople accessing female spaces for nefarious reasons that most people would even be worried. It is enough to have a law that says if someone has pretended to be a woman in order to commit a crime there should be an additional sentence. This hangup about proof of sex comes into every discussion on trans issues and is almost always a red herring.
We have moved far from the topic of the thread, although it was never really going to get far on its own without a two-sided discussion of the validity of the study. As it is, there have been numerous criticisms of (and questions about) the methodology, but none of them has been addressed, so inevitably the thread has moved on.
If we agree (unlikely?) that anyone can be either sex, and that over time socialisation evolves to remove what are now described as 'gender norms', how would that affect women?
*We are usually physically weaker than men, which is the reason a lot of single sex spaces exist.
*We can bear children, which makes us vulnerable during pregnancy and when our children are young.
*We are at risk of impregnation (quite apart from the other physical and emotional outcomes) if we are raped.
All of the above makes access to safe spaces important.
*In late pregnancy and early parenthood we are less able to work than men, so unless legislation is in lace to protect our incomes we will either suffer financially or become dependent on the father(s) of our children.
*If such legislation came in, we would find it more difficult to get jobs.
*Laws that exist to protect us now (fought for by feminists) would become toothless if male 'women' could make up the numbers in so-called 'gender balance' situations.
*There would be no places of safety where women could go when they are vulnerable (emotionally of physically) or if they simply don't want to be the objects of a male gaze.
*It is unrealistic to think that sexual desire can be controlled by legislation, which is another reason for having places where people are undressed separated by sex.
* Additionally, many people simply prefer these places to be separate from those of the opposite sex. Young people whose bodies are developing, older people whose bodies are not as they used to be, people with scars or other 'disfigurements' and so on have a right to dignity, and it is not prudish or unreasonable of them to want this (or to feel that this dignity is compromised by having members of the opposite sex in the room).
*We would have no control over who touched us intimately, eg in a medical situation, or one in which we are being searched. Many, if not most women would be uncomfortable about this, but for women with certain religious beliefs (which make up huge numbers of women) it would be in contravention of the laws by which they live. (This is also true of many of the points above about male access to female spaces).
Any more, anyone? I need to do my gender-based duty and change the sheets.
trisher
Rosie51
VioletSky
It's not even a solely human thing, just look at birds, there are lots of normal natural ways that Influence attractiveness, for some it's muscle, or speed or strength, for others it's plumage or beautiful displays, for still others it's smells...
For humans we use all of the aboveI'm not sure I get the relevance of this but those attributes and displays you mention are in order to get a mate of the opposite sex for procreation. You don't get peacocks displaying to other peacocks with the expectation of nesting together.
Peacocks fall in love with all sorts of things- like a petrol pump and display.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-391127/Peacock-falls-love-petrol-pump.html
There are lots of other things on Youtube.
Your link doesn't work.
If it's so common a phenomena why is the dailymail reporting it? There are always exceptions, but do you think the peacock is going to have to face reality in the end? Or perhaps they will end up the proud parents of a petrol pump peacock hybrid.
You never fail to live to the level of my expectations ???
Do you understand how authoritarian you sound. I am non binary as is everyone I know. Unless you are saying I fit into the range of stereotypes of that defines woman.
It's not stereotypes it's personal preferance
I'm very happily married, I don't make myself look nice to attract a mate I do it for myself and how I express myself
I dont make myself nice. Am I not a woman.
Galaxy
I dont make myself nice. Am I not a woman.
Shove up, there's going to be a few of us on that bench.
Yes you are a woman Galaxy, you have said so, that's the point. We aren't conforming to stereotype we are expressing our gender in different ways. I mentioned sight, physical displays, smell etc, there is also words.
That's why I accept anyone who tells me they are a woman as a woman and I'm never going to ask to check their genitals.
I have not said I can identify a person's sex by their appearance. Others believe that to be so.
People express their gender in many ways and the genitals themselves aren't on display in any of them
I am not expressing my gender. Please stop telling me that I am.
Galaxy
I am not expressing my gender. Please stop telling me that I am.
I'm sorry given that you know what my belief system is, it seems counter productive to ask me questions you don't like the answers too, they are just my honest answers
Galaxy
Do you understand how authoritarian you sound. I am non binary as is everyone I know. Unless you are saying I fit into the range of stereotypes of that defines woman.
That's great Galaxy are you all involved in the actions to get non-binary recognised and used on passports in the UK?
Passports should record sex. The interchangeable use of gender when it was regarded as a polite version of sex is causing these problems. Everyone has a sex, it's immutable. For those who would like a public declaration of their perceived gender that could be an extra box to be filled out if wished. Mine would be left blank. F in the sex box will suffice.
Rosie51
Passports should record sex. The interchangeable use of gender when it was regarded as a polite version of sex is causing these problems. Everyone has a sex, it's immutable. For those who would like a public declaration of their perceived gender that could be an extra box to be filled out if wished. Mine would be left blank. F in the sex box will suffice.
That seems like a sensible solution. An extra box for public declaration of perceived gender for those who wish it would cover all eventualities.
Er no because I think passports should record sex.
Yes it's very much a belief system. With all that entails.
Galaxy
Yes it's very much a belief system. With all that entails.
There is no need to say that is there, I'm just being polite enough to allow for our different views rather than saying "I think this so that's how it is/should be".
It's being open minded
Rosie51
Passports should record sex. The interchangeable use of gender when it was regarded as a polite version of sex is causing these problems. Everyone has a sex, it's immutable. For those who would like a public declaration of their perceived gender that could be an extra box to be filled out if wished. Mine would be left blank. F in the sex box will suffice.
Now that might be interesting. At Passport control. "Excuse me, but you say you are female but you don't have any gender. I'm going to have to ask you to step into a side room and make sure you are the sex you claim. You look a bit butch to me."
You'd beter start a campaign now Rosie51 because the indications are that in common with most countries the term non-binary will be adopted eventually
Still it is fun watching people wriggle as they try to pretend gender has no place in their lives.
I dont think that's impolite. I do think the concept of an inner gender is a belief system. There are lots of belief systems that I dont subscribe to, this doesnt necessarily mean that they are bad things, just that I dont believe in them.
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