If being transgender is not an illness...

[JellySlice]

...then it's surely a lifestyle choice.

Why do we have to validate people's lifestyle choices? Why do we have to facilitate other people's lifestyle choices to the expense of our own well-being?

And why do the nhs treat it?

The World Health organisation recommends that "gender incongruence" is categorised as a 'sexual health' condition.

In other words drugs, surgery and counselling from sexual health rather than mental health professionals.

What does 'gender incongruence' have to do with sexual health? Their bodies function normally.

Why do we have to validate any lifestyle choice? Many argue homosexuality is a lifestyle choice (I don't btw). Let's be honest this is just blatant transphobia.

I do wonder if it is funded differently, when we hear that NICE have difficult decisions to make about expensive life prolonging drugs, how is money found for this sort of treatment?

Ah because it's neither! It's clerical. They were misassigned their gender.

or that's the argument they would make I assume.

It's funny because all this really shows is how little we think of mental illness that almost literally anything is better than being labelled mentally ill.

Although I don't actually believe many are mentally ill. There is definitely a decision made in many cases. Like with prisoners and male feminists who decided after getting kicked out of feminism they were women all along...

Yeah, those pesky midwives ticking the wrong box at their birth and incorrectly assigning them.

Oh and young people who just think they now meet the definition because they've been told that's what woman/man means

If it isn't a mental illness, why are the children so mentally fragile and on the verge of suicide unless they get medical treatment?

I don't mean to make light of children with mental health issues of course, but it is a very contradictory message.

Chollo
I think it's because it is considered so upsetting to have been given the wrong body.

This gets my goat - people aren't 'given' the 'wrong body'.

We ARE our body. We grow. It cannot be 'wrong'.

People might not 'like' their body or be happy with it, but they ARE their body.

I must admit it's very confusing when some transpeople say they were given the wrong body but then others say they are happy with their ladydick.

Why do we have to validate any lifestyle choice?
We don't. I didn't get to be validated as a goth in my teens and twenties. Equality means that noone gets their lifestyle choice validated, whether goth, raver, or "tucute".

Many argue homosexuality is a lifestyle choice (I don't btw).
It isn't, it's neurological in origin, as is gender dysphoria.

Let's be honest this is just blatant transphobia.
Pointing out the fallacy and unintended consequences of the "trans is not an illness" orthodoxy is not transphobic. We are thinking through the consequences of what would happen if the Govt and Dept of Health decided that the #notanillness brigade were right. The NHS does not fund treatments without medical justification, so if you are deemed not to be ill, you can kiss goodbye to NHS-funded transition services.

how little we think of mental illness that almost literally anything is better than being labelled mentally ill

I have been saying since Irish pro-choice trans supporters published their rebuke of WNTT on here that trans ideology in its current form increases and normalises the stigma against mental patients. They said "currently in the UK people are forced to go through the indignity of medical diagnosis in order to have their gender recognised", because apparently having to see a medical practitioner and be diagnosed is somehow undignified, instead of a positive and shame-free step towards treatment and better quality of life. I know that some of those signatories are disabled and had to go through diagnosis, and the cognitive dissonance required to sign that letter with that wording is off the scale.

The sooner the disabled community, particularly mental patients, wake up to how the stigma against us is being stoked up and weaponised by the trans lobby, the better.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that children are seemingly not allowed to consider the second category since they are (a) given puberty blockers and (b) prepared for surgery forthwith

** "Blatant transphobia"? In what way?

The US lobby pushing the trans agenda wants it not to be an illness as then it makes it easier for it to be prescribed.

a goal of considering gender dysphoria no longer a mental illness — and to consider gender dysphoria a mental illness as a ground for violating a trans person’s human rights. This could mean that with no diagnosis, doctors cannot be sued for malpractice for prescribing transition

also

Let us think about it: what every group in the transgender lobby is demanding is essentially guaranteed access to medication for off-label purposes. None of these drugs are approved for transgender uses. Given the data we do have and the state of the science behind that data, accompanied by the side effects up to and including death, it is unlikely to ever be approved by the FDA in a clinical trial. Unless, of course, the side effects were better than the outcome. Hence, the creation of a perception that transgender people are murdered a at higher rates than the general population, even though that isn’t true. Saying that the side effects are better than the suicide of the patient probably wouldn’t pass muster either, given that medical intervention did not change the fact that transgender people have elevated suicide rates compared to the general population.

That's from this absolutely excellent article. Long, but well worth a read medium.com/@sue.donym1984/inauthentic-selves-the-modern-lgbtq-movement-is-run-by-philanthropic-astroturf-and-based-on-junk-d08eb6aa1a4b

Here's another piece of the puzzle:

From the Mumsnet thread discussing the article linked above, about Planned Parenthood in the states.

I called the other day to our local PP office. I asked if they had a practitioner who would treat gender dyphoria. Yes, they did. Did I need to have a referral from a psychiatrist or therapist or other physician? No, I did not. She said they "practice affirmative care." Then I asked about teens and children, at which point I believe she realized she had said too much and told me I'd have to make an appointment or leave my contact information.

In case this doesn't sufficiently scare you, let me recap where my state is in terms of the implications here for teens: a conversion therapy bill was passed that mandates the only approach for gender dysphoria is for providers and therapists to affirm stated gender identity. No watchful waiting. And, adolescents over the age of 14 are legally allowed to make their own decisions (with complete confidentiality from their parents) regarding mental health, sexuality, or substance use/abuse.

I'm 99% certain PP will prescribe to teens with no parental authorization. They can bill the child's insurance or will work on a sliding scale fee system. (What's a little expenditure in the red for a few years when you'll have a lifelong patient?)

Also, any more, most "providers" in the US who work for PP are what we call "mid-level practitioners," not physicians. They have much less schooling and experience, but typically have full prescribing privileges. It's scary.

Planned Parenthood, incidentally, are one of the orgs heavily investing in the trans agenda. This poster also share a FB ad from PP advertising their services (it's on the thread linked above but MN won't let me add any more pics today!)

Oops, bold fail!

That last paragraph is my words, but the previous one should have been bold, it's GeorgeFayne's words, from the other thread.

womensvoicesmatter, if gender dysphoria is not an illness, how can drugs be prescribed for it, on- or off-label?

How could providing dangerous drugs to a healthy person be ethical?

How would supplying mood-altering drugs to a healthy person, without any clinical need, be any different to supplying them with recreational drugs?

If the aim of treatment is to alleviate distress, then surgery and hormones may help some people. But the evidence of success is weak.

With the transition or die narrative stuck in everyone's heads it seems, and any attempt to look at other ways of dealing with the dysphoria being accused of conversion therapy,I wonder if any medical practitioner dare suggest anything else.

Look at this list of other ways to manage dysphoria from a survey of women (born) with gd: (I think it's just a straw poll rather than research btw)

Processing internalized misogyny
82.17%
New perspectives on sex/gender
79.11%
Processing internalized lesbo/biophobia
66.85%
Refocusing attention from dysphoria
53.76%
Passage of time
53.48%
New social connections
50.97%
Alleviation of depressive/anxious symptoms
46.80%
Art/music/writing
42.34%
Exercise
41.78%
Mindfulness
41.23%
Alleviation of dissociation/depersonalization
35.38%
Partial or full recovery from trauma
35.38%
Talk therapy
20.89%
Other
18.94%
Processing internalized ableism
18.66%
Meditation
18.11%
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
13.37%
Alleviation of OCD symptoms
10.86%
Processing internalized racism
8.36%
Alleviation of ADHD symptoms
6.96%
Dialectical behavioral therapy
5.01%
Nothing has helped
4.46%

I particularly like the "passage of time" option. Seems cheap and effective.

But if it's not an illness, why does it need to be treated?

Source for the list?

Period pain is (usually) not an illness. We still treat it.

We can get treatment from doctors for all kinds of things without having to have a formal diagnosis.

I'm guessing the source for those stats is a survey, just out, of 359 dysphoric women. It's not an official scientific study, but it's a lot of data.

Here's an image from it. Let me find the link, hold on...

Here's the survey of 359 dysphoric females who are not currently pursing transition as a dysphoria management strategy.

instigated by Hailey Mangelsdorf (previously trans-identified)

docs.google.com/document/d/1nc5X96PwzyfIfpvKi8RQR5t9AQe9SVl76aWZL30rVLY/edit