Do “transgender” people have worse mental health problems and higher suicide rates than the general population?

❏ “Counting Ourselves”, a frequently quoted NZ survey of 1,100 “trans” and “non-binary” people, reported that 71% of the respondents disclosed psychological distress and 56% had thought about attempting suicide in the past 12 months, with 37% having attempted suicide at some time, but there are serious flaws in the report’s methodology and questions.

❏ These statistics are repeatedly given as irrefutable fact but “Counting Ourselves”, and other similar surveys, are not a random sample of a population and cannot be verified against a control group. Further, asking respondents to self-report attempted suicide is known to overestimate the rate. The report itself says “our use of nonprobability sampling means that the generalizability of our results to the wider transgender population in Aotearoa/New Zealand and beyond should be interpreted with caution”.

❏ Although “trans”-identified people do suffer worse mental health than the general population, they also have higher rates of anxiety, depression, trauma, and neurological conditions that usually predate the “trans”-identity. Most surveys do not take into account pre-existing conditions or co-morbidities and simply attribute the poor mental health to being “transgender”.

❏ Exaggerated suicide statistics are being used as a form of emotional blackmail (“Better a live daughter than a dead son”) to push parents, clinicians, and others into acquiescing to irreversible treatments for minors.

❏ In a large US survey that reported “trans”-identified students were substantially more likely to report attempted suicide, the biggest single risk factor, sexual orientation, was overlooked. Emphasis on the “exceptional fragility” of “trans” adolescents ignores the importance of sexual orientation and the fact that the group most likely to report suicide attempts is gender non-conforming females (including lesbian, bisexual, “non-binary” and “trans”-identified) who do not have a heterosexual orientation.

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The UK’s The Critic Magazine put out a worthwhile article about the issue.