They compare the rates of suicide in trans people to cis people when determining the higer risk pre-transition, it makes just as much sense to compare post-transition to cis if we’re looking for a change in the numbers. It’s the same way you would compare LGB identified persons to their heterosexual counterparts to get a reflection of risk. When you are looking for increased risk in a minority, you need to compare it to the majority. If the rates in post-transition suicide compared to cis is higher than the rates if pre-transition suicide compared to cis, the outcome is going to be the same if we compare pre-transition rates to post-transition outright. The increase will be there no matter what.

Part of the reason for this suicide rate is the trans community firmly believing transitioning is a cure all to dysphoria. We expect to feel the same as cis people and be comfortable and happy because of some plastic surgery and hormones without anymore mental health assitance. Alleviating dysphoria is not the same as getting rid of it all together.

hiccuphaddck said:

I’m 27 years old. I’ve been on hormones for over 2 years. I just underwent top surgery two and a half weeks ago. I believe these transitions will help relieve my depression and anxiety in ways that medication and just therapy haven’t. Does that mean my dysphoria is gone for good? No. Would bottom surgery make dysphoria be gone for good? Absolutely not. It doesn’t cure me any more than Zoloft or Prozac or any other drug cures depression.

The problem with promoting transition as a cure is that people think they can just stop seeking help after. Therapy is still needed. True reflection on whether or not transition is necessary is needed BEFORE we seek it. We’ve created a society that wants to jump to transitioning as the be all and end all of treating people who suffer from GID and we refuse to believe that there is a mental component. We want to believe it’s all physical when it isn’t.

I have become firmly against the medical transition of minors because of the way our society has made being trans our go to diagnosis for anyone non-conforming. We are furthering the beliefs of gender roles with every story we tell of trans kids knowing they were trans because of the clothes they wore as kids or the toys they played with and it is making for people who transition without critical thinking and doctors who push it on younger and younger children who fail to match gender beliefs.

I am not anti-transition, but if we refuse to acknowledge underlying issues, refuse to realize transition is a last resort treatment and not a cure, those post-transition increased suicide rates are not only going to remain present but become a much larger issue in the trans community that we will desperately try to sweep under the rug until it can no longer be ignored.