tejuina:tranarchist:transstudent:We realize that transitioning isn’t for everyone. However, to
tejuina:tranarchist:transstudent:We realize that transitioning isn’t for everyone. However, too many people make “regret” claims that simply aren’t true. Take a look. Share on Facebook. Retweet. Learn more (and download the study).It’s shocking that medical gatekeepers will make a huge deal about transition related healthcare being “irreversible” as if you could just “change your mind” later. When they surely have personally seen more than enough trans people to know that this is complete bullshit.And they’d sooner have a trans person commit suicide than let anyone take hormones without their seal of approval.Here’s the study: http://www.transstudent.org/Affirming_Gender.pdfSome things to note:1) It’s from 2012. A lot of things have changed in the past 5 years for the trans community in the U.S.2) Were you to ask me, someone who’s detransitioning, the same questions, my answers would be: a) yes, I did see a temporary improvement in my sense of wellbeing; b) transitioning didn’t make me bitter, but it also didn’t make me emotionally stable or ‘improve my personality’ (what does that even mean? and c) I’m absolutely okay with the results of my top surgery and with many of the effects I had on testosterone. None of that changes the fact that I’m detransitioning.3) It “was designed as a community study, not as a formal research project” (p.6).4) This study evaluated the responses of 448 trans people (p.1), 87% of which were from the U.S. This other study from 2016 found that approximately 0.6% of adults in the United States identify as transgender–double the number estimated a decade prior–and “implies than an estimated 1.4 million adults in the U.S. identify as transgender” (p.2). Even if we were going with the estimate from 2006 (I’m assuming around 0.5 million), is 448 people enough to constitute a significant sample statistically speaking?Not to mention the people who answered the survey were absolutely not chosen at random. The survey “was conducted entirely online from early September through late November 2011” and reached people via email either individually or through “support groups, social networks, list serves, and nonprofit organizations” (p.6). This absolutely makes for a biased sample because how many of those regretting transition/detransitioning are going to be going to trans support group meetings? Signing up to list serves that keep them updated on trans events?Would we have had the same results had the survey been targeted at people who’ve gone to gender clinics, plastic surgeons, therapists, and endocrynologists pursuing transition regardless of their current involvement or lack thereof in trans spaces? Doubtful. Moreover, unless someone has had their ovaries or testes removed, they can very well detransition without needing medical assistance as their bodies will still produce sex hormones, and they could very well never again reach out to the people who helped them transition.Not to mention only 38% of the respondents had been on hormones for more than 5 years (p.11). If you’re going to be making a claim about regret and detransition, the amount of time someone has identified as trans is absolutely crucial, and it would make way more sense to run a long-term study seeing the way people’s understanding of their transition changes throughout time.The survey is honest in its lack of reach and statistical significance and, as stated before, frames itself merely as a community study. It’s disingenuous of you to take it and present it as scientific truth in order to dissuade people from listening to those of us who have chosen to detransition and have a lot of insight into many of the things that might be wrong with the current state of trans politics and the current approach to transition.If someone wants to point me in the direction of unbiased, statistically significant studies conducted over time, I’ll gladly look at them, but stop silencing us by telling us our existence threatens trans people. -- source link
#false statistics