Evidence of increased risk of suicide or self-harm in trans young people?

[SeaRabbit]

I am also in another chat forum, and the publicity around JKR has led to someone posting links to 'proof' that there are higher risks of suicide and/or self harm amongst trans youth. I haven't come across any of this before, possibly because it's mostly US based. Has anyone got any comments on this, and how we may differ in UK?
Here are the links:

I'll see your transphobic website and raise you:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306338426
SuicidalityySelf-HarmanddBodyDissatisfactionninTransgenderrAdole
scentsanddEmergingAdultsswithGenderr_Dysphoria

https://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/home/topics/suic
ide-and-self-harm/transgender-boys-nonbinary-adolescents-face-highest-suicide-risk-by-gender/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/js
m.12711

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26944465/

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/96-of-transgender-youth-engage-in-self-harm-study

An increased risk of self harm is an indication of a mental health problem. The best treatment is not to make the person a lifelong medical patient by giving them surgery and cross sex hormones, its to help them learn to accept the process of change from childhood to adulthood.

This is a new phenomena. We should be investigating what has gone wrong for teenagers, before we put them on a path that leads to loss of sexual function as adults, and sterility.

There’s an increase in self harm and suicide amongst teens with Anorexia I believe, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to stop them from starving themselves
I believe that self harm, suicide and in some cases believing they were “ assigned the wrong sex at birth” are all shades of the same thing. Self hatred and an attempt to make sense of the world and themselves in it.

Hoppingreen nailed it.

I don’t know about transgender-specific data, but there is an increase in suicide risk for LGB youth and for autistic youth.

From what I’ve seen, autistic and gay kids are very much overrepresented among the transgender population. You would need careful stats to untangle one effects from the others.

There is lots of evidence out there of increased SH and suicide and if you listened to trans kids/teens you would understand why. They are dismissed as mentally ill, following a trend etc and are discriminated against and marginalised the world over. All they want is acceptance and this is so often lacking. Trans youths who are accepted have similar levels of SH/ suicide to the general population.

Does self harm mean things like the side effects of black market hormones and rib deformations from binders?

There is lots of evidence out there of increased SH and suicide and if you listened to trans kids/teens you would understand why. They are dismissed as mentally ill

A child who is suicidal IS mentally ill. Either that or they are being manipulative.

All the linked "studies" are self selected, self reported studies on self-declared trans children.

I've only read the first page of each, but there seems to be no attempt to do any actual research apart from questionnaires.

There is also no attempt to separate "trans" out from LGB, autistic, anorexic or even just plain unhappy children.

All the studies start of from the premise that there are large percentages of trans kids self-harming and attempting suicide; none appear to start off neutrally, which makes me question them.

Hi sea rabbit, I too am on that forum! Just thought I'd say hello. I hadn't seen those links before either.

Surveys...

GIDS has reported that suicide ideation amongst gender confused/gender dysphoric under 18s is the same as other vulnerable under 18s groups such as children with autism/asperger's, eating disordered, abused children, children in child protection and orphans.

So it's higher than your average child, but on a level with all other vulnerable children.

It's curious why suicide ideation is so often quoted in reference to trans issues but rarely mentioned at all when talking about autistic children.

Also, PP above who compared anorexia to trans was bang on the money.
The leading cause of death in anorexics is suicide. Far higher than actual starvation
( )

Children who believe they are trans are in a similar group to other body dysphorias. Putting them on an irreversible path of hormones and surgery without addressing the underlying mental health issues is irresponsible and negligent.

lilymaynard.com/hyperbole-and-the-trans-suicide-myth/

Lily Maynard has written about this subject

Trans youths who are accepted have similar levels of SH/ suicide to the general population. and I have seen experts say that the stats for those who have transitioned are just as high. Some of the reasons they give us that affirmation does not treat co-morbidities and that transitioned people realise it was not the ‘fix’ they thought.

Perhaps what is needed is some extended mental health assistance before any child is led to believe they can be born in the wrong body. And not ever the assumption that ‘dismissing’ the mental health aspect is acceptable.

‘There is lots of evidence out there of increased SH and suicide’

Could you please point me at it? I’ve been through serious case reviews and ONS statistics and thankfully the numbers of U.K. minors who die by suicide each year isn’t very high. Even less of them seem to have gender dysphoria

and if you listened to trans kids/teens you would understand why.

I have a stepchild who suffers from what seems to be gender dysphoria (there are no objective clinical tests) which is why I have stayed up all night, night after night, looking for evidence of increased self harm and suicide. Studies turn out to be small self reported surveys rather than verified statistics.

NHS GIDS says ‘Suicide is extremely rare’, thankfully.

gids.nhs.uk/evidence-base

It's a bullshit claim.

Sadly, mental health provision for all teens, regardless of diagnosis, is a shambles, unless you can pay for it privately.

So, regardless of diagnosis, if you are also experiencing suicidal ideation and you have no or inadequate mental health support, you are at risk of acting on that ideation.

There is no evidence that this risk is high in children with a GD diagnosis as compared to other diagnoses, and the risk remains relatively low in children anyway.

Anyone other than TRA's would think this a cause for celebration.

I have read a study that suggested gender non-conforming and bisexual girls had particularly poor mental health, but I'd have to go and dig it out.

My suggestion, for anyone for whom this inappropriately inflated fear is a live issue, is to find a GC therapist for their child - either DBT or work with a Jungian therapist are the most helpful, but DBT for children and teens is almost impossible to access.

If there's a correlation at all it's probably because kids who announce they're trans are generally already extremely troubled.

kids who announce they're trans are generally already extremely troubled

Yep. Both mine had experiences of trauma before trans ID. The second child was actually traumatised by the mental health crisis of the eldest.

Sorry to hear that, jane

They are OK now, both doing well. GD was a symptom, not a cause. As is it for many (most?) kids.

While acknowledging that anecdote dont equal data, the only trans child in my small community was supported to transition by his family and school but committed suicide in first year at university. Sadly his mother then also committed suicide a few years later, it was a tragic situation.
With knowledge and experience gained after one of my own childrens DX i can look back at this person as a young child and suspect ASD played a part.

If there's a correlation at all it's probably because kids who announce they're trans are generally already extremely troubled.

This. Certainly likely in the case of a 'trans' child I know, who suffered a major trauma some years before.

Transing a child in distress only compounds it. Making an undiagnosed non conforming autistic girl a lifelong medical patient instead of offering therapies and support is not what we need to aim for. Anorexia and autism have had a long correlation and absolutely no one is offering them gastric bands. They are even discouraged from joining slimming clubs.

I know I always bang on about ASD girls but we cannot ignore the connection. ASD women who were undx as children and teenagers report similar feelings of being uncomfortable with changing bodies, feeling othered and lonely.

I don't know enough about the stats to form a judgement but, even if they were accurate, since when has denying the truth and compelling everyone else to deny the truth been a treatment for suicidal or self harming thoughts?

If I recall correctly the risk of suicide in children was highest for anorexia , and was the same for autistic and trans identifying children

This. Certainly likely in the case of a 'trans' child I know, who suffered a major trauma some years before.

My stepdaughter’s puberty coincided with her younger sister’s year long battle with a cancer-like immune system disorder. Throw in extreme social awkwardness and an emerging same-sex attraction (and associated lesbophobic bullying) and the first experience of being aggressively catcalled by an adult man (a week or two after her 13th birthday) and it’s really not a surprise that she’d be pretty miserable and susceptible to hiding herself away inside a temporary cross-sex identity.

The fact that the school counsellor funnelled her straight down the route of changing her name on the school register without exploring any of what she’d been through in the lead up to this distress (and despite the dysphoria not being ‘persistent, consistent, insistent’) is a massive, heartbreaking failure, and possibly some sort of professional misconduct.