Trans data?

 This has become perhaps the hot topic of our times, in the news pretty

much daily, with very passionate people claiming it's a wonderful thing
that saves lives and makes happy lives where before there was misery.

We do know some individuals benefit from it and lead happier lives.  We
also know other individuals discover it was an enormous mistake for them
and end up with even more misery in their lives.  Do we have any kind of
meaningful statistics on what the real breakdown is of individual
results, how many really happy, how many really unhappy, how many maybe
somewhere in between?  So far the answer is no.

But other countries where the practice has been supported longer and
better than here have been accumulating data.  A 2011 study at the
Karolinska Institute in Sweden followed 324 sex reassignment patients for
decades. After 10 years, patients had increased mental difficulties.
Suicide mortality rose to almost 20 times the rate of those who did not
transition.  Drug and alcohol abuse were also very common, far more than
in the general population.

People tend to transition looking for something that will solve whatever
problems and anxieties they have, make them a new person that leaves
behind all those troubling issues.  Clearly for a very significant
fraction of these people the solution they envisioned and the stress free
life they anticipated do not materialize.  One might make the case that
for many of them what was needed was extensive therapy, although it must
be noted that not even that solves the personal problems of all.

I am waiting to see when some courageous psychologists undertake to do an
objective study of people who transitioned over time, and also any who
were at one point considering transitioning but decided not to do so.
However, given that any such study would instantly get those involved
attacked viciously, I'm not sure if we'll see any such anytime soon.  Yet
for the good of all the people with problems who now consider
transitioning, generating the real data on the success vs failure rate of
the process, and perhaps what characteristics of the person make success
more likely, would be a true service.  Knowing the truth of a complex
situation is infinitely better than confusion and rabid activism.

Del