You’ve probably heard it said that medical treatment for gender-confused people, including radical gender re-assignment, is “settled science”—that it’s proven, necessary, and even lifesaving. It is commonly argued that these treatments improve the quality of life for gender-confused people. These claims are often presented with such confidence that questioning them can feel off-limits. But is the science really as clear-cut as we’re told?
A growing number of researchers are beginning to say “no”.
Finnish Research
Several rigorous, large-scale studies coming out of Europe in the last few years are raising very serious concerns. One of the most significant is a recent Finnish study published in Acta Paediatrica over the last year. It builds on the findings of the UK’s 2024 Cass Review, an independent investigation into gender medicine.
In short, these studies have discovered that instead of experiencing improved quality of life, those who undergo medically assisted gender transition go on to experience mental health problems that are more prevalent and more severe than those who don’t undertake this ultimate step.
Long Term Study
Until recently, we haven’t had any hard data to assess the long-term effects for those undergo medical transition. But this latest Finnish study has now revealed the shocking and deadly long-term results of medical gender transition.
Finland has a government-run healthcare system that keeps detailed records on its citizens over decades. This allowed researchers to track every young person under 23 who was referred to gender identity clinics between 1996 and 2019. They then compared these individuals to similar peers who did not seek such treatment.
This is important because it avoids a common problem in research: relying only on volunteers. When studies depend on people choosing to participate, the results can be skewed. But here, the researchers looked at an entire national population over many years, making the findings much more reliable.
So what did they discover?
Associated Psychiatric Illnesses
Firstly, a large percentage of people referred for gender-related medical intervention also suffered from additional psychiatric illnesses. This accords with a previous Austrian study, published in “The Archives of Sexual Behaviour” in 2025 which found that a staggering 71% of gender confused young people also suffered from significant unrelated mental illnesses. Importantly, the study also found that 77% of these young people had very strong social support networks – a finding which overturns the gay/trans rhetoric that seeks to blame the supposed social isolation caused by the rest of society for the high incidence of mental illnesses among trans people.
But more concerning is what is happening over time.
Decreased Quality of Life
The study found that rather than improving their quality of life, the mental health problems experienced by gender confused people became more prevalent and more severe in the years following medical transition.
This raises an uncomfortable but important question: if these treatments are supposed to help, why are they doing the opposite?
Higher Mortality Rates
The Finnish researchers also looked at longer-term mortality rates, including suicide. The study found that medical transition did NOT lead to reduced suicide risk and, in fact, increased the incidence and severity of significant psychiatric unwellness that is contributing to suicide. The study stated that death by suicide following medical transition is “Three times higher than female controls [females in the general population] and five times higher than male controls”.
This builds upon the conclusion of the 2024 Cass Review, which found that suicide rates were HIGHER among those who medically transitioned than among those who didn’t.
Taken together, these findings challenge the idea that gender-affirming medical treatment is the best solution.
It’s Not Helping!
To put it bluntly, the hard data now reveals that medically assisted gender transition results in making psychiatrically unwell people even more unwell.
None of this means that these individuals don’t deserve compassion, care and support. They absolutely do. But it does show that affirming them in their gender confusion via medical procedures, often irreversible, is not helping – it’s only making their confusion and mental unwellness worse.
Detransitioners Testify
The growing movement of de-transitioners gives testimony to this. A recent documentary, “Detransitioners: A European Tragedy”, highlights the tragic cry of many who have undergone medically assisted gender transition and are now speaking out against a system that all-too-quickly affirmed them in their mental unwellness and led to irreversible and devasting long-term consequences.
Good science doesn’t ignore hard data – it welcomes it and responds to it. And right now, the most careful research is telling us that this is an area where we have got it wrong.
FURTHER READING:
The Worrying Rise of Gender Detransitioners