I'm very thankful that I put all of my appointments into my Google calendar.

I could remember roughly when I did things, but like most people, my exact early transition timeline is fuzzy.

What's not fuzzy is seeing an appointment booked with my GP to discuss my gender identity in April 2021.

Or the follow-up appointment with them to get a referral to an NHS GIC.

Or the blood test to support that referral.

#GRC #GenderRecognitionCertificate #GenderIdentityClinic #GIC

29. "But [Barber] said the rates of people regretting going on gender affirming drugs is 'almost zero' and those taking it see an upswing in their mental health."

Again, this is not simply Barber "said". Not only is it true that regret rates are close to zero, they have remained stable or dropped over time:

* Smith et al. (2004) [1] found that in a sample of 162 trans adults at 2 gender clinics in the Netherlands, the number who "expressed regrets" was 2 (1.4%).

* Davies et al. (2019) [2] found that in a sample of 3,398 British trans adults at 1 #GenderIdentityClinic, the number who experienced transition-related regret was 16 (0.47%) or fewer. [3]

* Turban et al. (2021) [4] found that, among respondents to the 2015 #USTransgenderSurvey, of the 2,242 who reported a history of detransition, 54 (2.4%) endorsed "uncertainty or doubt around gender" as a factor.

The usual argument at this point is "oh but even one is too much!", which is obviously bullshit both on principle and in practice. For instance, Wilson et al. (2017) [5], reviewing patient decisional regret around surgery — all surgery, of any kind — found that in the studies reviewed, the "average prevalence" of "self-reported patient regret," which they described as "relatively uncommon," was 14.4%.

Moreover, the fact that "gender affirming drugs' cause "an upswing in [trans people's] mental health" is not realistically in any doubt.

* St Amand et al. (2011) [6] found "clear evidence that #HRT is associated with improved mental health outcomes".

* Colizzi et al. (2014) [7] found that the percentage of subjects in whom "psychiatric distress and functional impairment were present" was significantly lower after 12 months of HRT.

* Bouman et al. (2016) [8] found that "the use of cross-sex hormones appears to be associated with psychological benefits".

I have about 40 more studies here on this topic and I could go on but 3 is enough because we all already know this. Only News Corp could pretend this is news — I can't imagine I'm the first person to say that sentence.

SECTION NOTES

[1] https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/abs/sex-reassignment-outcomes-and-predictors-of-treatment-for-adolescent-and-adult-transsexuals/D000472406C5F6E1BD4E6A37BC7550A4

[2] https://epath.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Boof-of-abstracts-EPATH2019.pdf (p. 118)

[3] 16 subjects "expressed transition-related regret or detransitioned," which are, while intuitively clearly associated, not mutually inclusive.

[4] https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/lgbt.2020.0437

[5] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00268-017-3895-9

[6] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19359705.2011.581195

[7] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030645301300348X

[8] https://www.jsm.jsexmed.org/article/S1743-6095(16)00086-2/fulltext