No, the Swedish study does not say that transitioning makes trans women suicidal

People fighting against transgender rights (TERFs, Fox News and religious fundamentalists included) are making a lot out of a Swedish study on transgender people, claiming that it proves that gender reassignment leads to suicide.

This is what the study actually says about suicide among transgender people:

“The overall mortality for sex-reassigned persons was higher during follow-up  than for controls of the same birth sex, particularly death from suicide.”

What this sentence says is not that trans people who has had gender reassignment are more likely to commit suicide than those transgender people who have not done so. The researchers behind the study explicitly say that research suggests that gender reassignment of transsexual persons improves quality of life and gender dysphoria.

The sentence is actually comparing trans people with non-transgender people, and given the social harassment and ostracism experienced by trans people, whether they have transitioned or not, a higher suicide rate among transgender people is to be expected.

As the main researcher behind the study, Cecilia Dehjne, says:

“Medical transition alone won’t resolve the effects of crushing social oppression: social anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress.”

As for the claim that the study shows that trans women show “male patterns of criminality”, Dehjne points out that this only applies to the older data. For the period between 1989 to 2003, you will find no such pattern.

Dehjne explains:

“What the data tells us is that things are getting measurably better and the issues we found affecting the 1973 to 1988 cohort group likely reflects a time when trans health and psychological care was less effective and social stigma was far worse.”

If you, whether you are trans or a trans ally, come across people who misrepresent the Swedish study in any way, refer them to this post and/or the following:

• The Transadvocate: Fact check: study shows transition makes trans people suicidal (includes interview with Dehjne)
• Huff Post: Myths About Transition Regrets
• Cecilia Dhejne, Paul Lichtenstein, Marcus Boman, Anna L. V. Johansson, Niklas Långström, Mikael Landén: “Long-Term Follow-Up of Transsexual Persons Undergoing Sex Reassignment Surgery: Cohort Study in Sweden”
  

Background photo: SIphotography