Sweden: sharp decline in referrals to GD clinics

[NeurotrashWarrior]

Very interesting report on the impact of the media on gender dysphoria.

genderreport.ca/the-swedish-u-turn-on-gender-transitioning/

*In the fall of 2019, there was a 65% decline in the number of referrals to gender clinics in Sweden. This corresponded with experts calling on the government to review clinical protocols and more balanced media coverage of the phenomenon of regret among gender transitioners, including the airing of a ”_.

The 3-part documentary includes several interviews with detransitioners and revealed that medical transition of minors is not evidence-based. A high profile transwoman in Sweden – Aleksa Lundberg – also came out in the media saying that if she were to go back and make the decision again “I might not have had the surgery””_. She said she had believed that “there was a more scientific basis” for this healthcare – but has since realized that that is not the case. She says people deserve “a more complex narrative” than the simple public narrative that the media has been promoting on the topic of gender transition.*

That's really interesting. Suggest that at least some of the cases are driven by media / ignorance of potential consequences.

It'll be interesting to see if we get a similar fall in the UK.

Also linked in comments:

Since publishing we’ve been made aware of an excellent article by Mikael Landén, Professor, University Hospital Chief Physician, Section of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg
https://lakartidningen.se/klinik-och-vetenskap-1/kommentar/2019/10/okningen-av-konsdysfori-hos-unga-tarvar-eftertanke/

In this article (for which he won an award) he puts forward that “culturally-linked psychologial infection” (aka social contagion) is a possible explanation for the exponential increase in youth seeking gender transition. We’ll update our article with more info but he states:

An alternative is culturally bound psychological infection. If people in their early teens are encouraged to think about their gender identity and are taught that gender dysphoria is a normal variant, it is not unlikely that some young people will direct their identity search towards gender identity. Such a search can spread quickly in social networks, as described for a number of other phenomena such as bulimia, suicide (increases when famous people or someone you know has taken their life), smoking, obesity and more [8].

The increased use of social media coincides in time with the increase in gender dysphoria [9] and may have facilitated the spread of social networks. Autism spectrum disorders are more common in people with gender dysphoria [10], and it may be people who are more sensitive to such effects

Also worth scrolling down and reading this added note, too long to copy here:

Yes, it's extremely interesting and also what many parents and commenters here have felt to be the case for a long time.

I have been posting this on relevant threads. My question, if anyone knows, is that this report came out in February 2020. Has anyone seen this report before this Canadian article?

It seems like really great news and it does really encapsulate all our questions/concerns. Surely, our own government is taking note.

Such a positive development and mirroring precisely what responsible adults know - that children are easily influenced by social media. Adults with a personal interest in an issue but no understanding of (or care for) child & adolescent development, safeguarding and child welfare should not be allowed anywhere near influencing medical treatment, parenting or education practice.

That this is still not understood by so many is why we have these scandalous statistics about ROGD.

Important evidence for Women and Equalities call for evidence, especially as they ask about Scottish Act which wants to allow 16 year olds to transition and get GRC.

Bump

It’s a really interesting read.
I’m also interested in the way social media platforms and message boards have really clamped down on pro anorexia speech and effectively slowed the progression of those seeking affirmation of pro anorexia ideas. But they’ve actively promoted gender dysphoria to teens as an answer to their Autistic, ADHD and Anxiety disorders.

I’m really hoping that in the UK children’s charities look closely at the data coming from Sweden.

This is really important, I think.

Great news! Let's share widely

This is fantastic. Please watch!

It is important isn't it?

I think it's absolutely the crux and has been for a while.

My personal experiences of teaching a gender questioning pupil with asd was entirely based in media.

His personal interests were all from certain tween shows on satellite tv. He was just into the "wrong" clothes and toys. He had no expressions of being in the wrong body till that concept was introduced to him by an older child/ teen who had watched a documentary.

The films on YouTube for years have been of so many who essentially advertise and glamourise and then project their own experiences. Also tumblr, chat rooms etc.

There was a particular algorithm on youtube for a period of time that brought up similar videos to what you'd watched. It's been changed now (only a little!) as it was implicated in the increase of flat earthers and fake news.

It's the same processes described by Oliver James in 'the Affluenza Virus' whereby media, tv and advertising has been directly linked to rises in depression, anxiety and anorexia around the world. We can be very influenced by visual images.

We all know how ana sites and self harm images on Instagram have influenced vulnerable children and young people, especially girls.

For me though, the way women and girls are presented in all visual media now and in the past has a big part to play. Both through objectification and how girls react to that objectification. And porn too.

Girls don't have to actively seek this stuff out to be affected by it. It's everywhere.

And being trans and getting mastectomies has definitely been glamourised.

This seems to me another reason not to normalise stating your pronouns. The intention is to make gender identity a thing, of course, which encourages the navel-hazing social contagion element.

But don't get me started on how charities providing school resources have enabled this harm even more.

Gazing

Absolutely collide. Its becoming 'the norm' to do so.

Excellent news, well done to the Swedes who've been shouting about this.

I always think of the social contagion thing as an issue of accessible analytical frameworks.

If "transgenderism" is the most immediately available, the only socially acceptable, framework accessible to them, then people learn to think of themselves in reference to it.

It is important isn't it?

It is. It needs to be seen.

There is definitely a slow but sure shift happening with more clinicians being willing to speak out and more research evidence (and evidence of a lack of evidence) that supports a more considered, holistic 'watch and wait' approach.
The international Society for Gender-based Medicine are well worth keeping an eye on - the blog currently has articles about 'conversion therapy' and a rebuttal of previous 'evidence' about gender surgeries improving mental health. www.segm.org/
Clear, objective and evidence-based. A joy.

Thanks merch that's really useful.

I've posted this link before; interestingly I couldn't see the images this time till I clicked on each one.

I wonder if the publishers recognise the issue? (Doubtful.)

I see these posts as glamourising a type of self harm. There can be damage to the glands under the arm through surgery causing long term drainage issues and pain.

How is this different to self harm images on Instagram?

www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2019/05/234065/lachlan-watson-top-surgery-scar-interview

Watson also played out their yo yoing identities on screen via Sabrina. (I believe pushed for the character to become trans.)

Sabrina was a great show in the 90s; I doubt many parents would know about how this version plays out with this story.

I appreciate art; Orlan's surgeries to become an archetypal beauty and then to have 'horns' were interesting and extreme as 'art' for some.

My issue is that this is 'top surgery' normalised for young women and girls who don't understand the longer term impact. It's not a tattoo.

It's also Infantilising the female form.

Why does the non binary body default to male?

www.vogue.co.uk/miss-vogue/article/lachlan-watson-interview

Good news.

This, from the first link just makes me so bloody cross. What do the care providers think they are doing? Evidence based practice should be a bloody given.

Unlike the epidemic of self-harm behavior, (gender dysphoria) care providers are not exploring to find the right treatment. Instead, on a broad front, drastic treatment with high doses of sex hormones and breast and genital surgery is introduced. This despite the lack of any scientific evidence for these treatments for children, and probably not for young adults either

Sven Roman, MD and child psychiatrist

Makes me think the surgeons were also taken in by all the documentaries too.

Plus 💰