Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 4, 2020 / 11:00 am
The authors of a 2019 study which claimed so-called gender-transition surgery may improve the long-term mental health of recipients have issued a correction, nearly a year after publication. The authors now say they found "no advantage" to the mental health of those who received gender-transition surgery.
In October of 2019, the American Journal of Psychiatry published a report on the rates of mental health treatment among recipients of gender-transition surgery and hormone therapy. The report was entitled "Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries."
On Saturday, the authors of the study-Richard Bränström, Ph.D., and John E. Pachankis, Ph.D., issued a correction, saying that "the results demonstrated no advantage of surgery in relation to subsequent mood or anxiety disorder-related health care."
The 2019 AJP report had originally claimed that, among persons who had received gender-transition surgery, the number of mental health treatment visits declined over time. Persons diagnosed with gender incongruence are at higher risk of mental health disorders, the report said; around six times more likely to seek treatment for a "mood and anxiety disorder" than members of the general population, and "more than six times as likely to have been hospitalized after a suicide attempt."