Large university study finds risk of mental health issues rises as much as 388% after trans surgery

A new study of people who have undergone transgender surgery after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria shows that the surgery increases the risk of mental health issues for patients.

The retrospective study looked at a large population of 107,583 patients to evaluate the mental health outcomes in transgender individuals who underwent surgery.

Published by The Journal of Sexual Medicine, the study by the University of Texas found “those undergoing surgery were at significantly higher risk for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and substance use disorders than those without surgery.”

The risk of mental health issues post-surgery was most severe for biological males seeking to transition to female characteristics. 

“Males with surgery showed a higher prevalence of depression… and anxiety,” said the study’s conclusion. 

Males in the group showed depression rates at 25.4% vs. 11.5% for those with gender dysphoria who did not get surgery. 

“Females exhibited similar trends, with elevated depression,” according to the study’s results, with depression rates of 22.9% for those who had surgery vs. 14.6% for those who opted out.  

The findings suggest the necessity for gender-sensitive mental health support following surgery to better support patients, said the authors.  

Others say the findings show that transgender surgery does more harm than good for people already suffering from gender confusion. 

“No real surprise here,” said Wilfred Reilly, associate professor of political science at Kentucky State University and author of Lies My Liberal Teacher Told Me. “This also isn’t ‘knee surgery causes knee pain’ statistical mis-reading.”  

Reilly noted the negative effects, with surgery being the “point-of-increase” with multiple controls considered to ensure accuracy. 

One control, according to the study’s authors, was for pre-existing mental illness not related to gender dysphoria.  

“By excluding patients with documented pre-existing mental health diagnoses, this study sought to ensure that identified mental health outcomes likely represented new or emergent conditions rather than pre-existing disorders,” said the study’s authors. “This methodological approach was critical to focusing on the relationship between gender-affirming surgery and mental health.”  

Another control was screening for body dysmorphic disorder, a mental health illness where one has unnatural anxiety about one’s physical appearance.    

A table shared by Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist and Manhattan Institute fellow, showed outcomes for males with gender dysphoria who receive surgery compared to males with gender dysphoria who do not: those operated on were 35.6% higher for suicidal ideation, 120% higher for depression, 130% higher for substance abuse and 388% higher for anxiety.   

The study weakens one of the only arguments the transgender ideologues have for trans medicine, especially as practiced on children: without treatment, patients will harm themselves. 

Small scale studies have been cited about the benefits of medical intervention for transgender youth, reducing depression and suicide risk. But often these studies are authored by advocates rather than scientists. The studies are also suspect because of the small sample sizes that often accompany them.  

For example, in 2022, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that claimed transgender youth had a 60% decrease in depression after taking puberty blockers or gender hormones.  

The study is one of the most often cited scientific papers in claiming that puberty blockers and gender hormones reduce depression in youth with gender dysphoria. It has been cited 556 times in other studies.  

The study, however, had just 104 participants. Additionally, one of the principal authors, Diana M. Tordoff, is an epidemiologist, who is also an LGBTQ activist at PrideStudy.org, a project of Stanford University.  

She is currently funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to investigate the impact of testosterone gender affirming hormone therapy on the gynecological health of transmasculine people, according to her self-authored bio.  

However, the University of Texas study, which examined more than 107,000 patients, found that “Feminizing individuals [men who have begun taking hormones to develop female characteristics] demonstrated particularly high risk for depression.”  

But that shouldn’t relieve Tordoff’s “transmasculine” patients who are taking testosterone hormones as treatment for their gender confusion and are considering surgery to become male.   

Female-to-male surgery patients still suffer depression at rates nearly double those with female-to-male gender dysphoria who don’t get surgery, according to the University of Texas study.