A study published on Monday has connected a spike in youth suicides to sex-change hormones, puberty blockers and a lack of parental consent regarding transgender treatments for children.
The study,’Puberty Blockers, Cross-Sex Hormones, and Youth Suicide’ was conducted by Jay P. Greene, a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Centre for Education Policy.
The US study by the conservative organisation found that lowering legal barriers to make it easier for children to undergo cross-sex medical interventions without the consent of their parents does not lower suicide rates – but rather, it ‘likely leads to higher rates’ of suicide among young people’.
The study advised US states to instead adopt parental bills of rights that affirm parents’ primary responsibility for their children’s education and health, requiring school officials and health professionals to get permission from parents before providing medication and ‘gender-affirming’ counselling to minors. The study also said that states should tighten the criteria for receiving transgender treatments, including raising the minimum eligibility age.
It comes as some policymakers in the US advocate making it easier for children to access puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones based on the claim that doing so decreases the risk of suicide.
On this claim, the study stated: “Studies finding that “gender-affirming” interventions prevent suicide fail to show a causal relationship and have been poorly executed”.
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to prevent states from attempting to limit transgender treatments for minors. The move, hailed by LGBT activists, comes after Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee passed laws banning gender-transition drugs and procedures for those under 18.
The order calls on the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services to ‘increase access to gender-affirming healthcare’.
The Heritage Centre’s Study detailed an increase in youth suicides – reporting that 2020 saw 1.6 more suicides per 100,000 residents ages 12 to 23 in US states that allow minors to access puberty blockers and other gender-reassignment procedures without requiring consent from a parent.
“Starting in 2010, when puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones became widely available, elevated suicide rates in states where minors can more easily access those medical interventions became observable,” the paper read.
“That represents a 14% increase in the suicide rate in states with more lenient policies. Before 2010, the two groups of states “did not differ in their youth suicide rates.
“Rather than being protective against suicide, this pattern indicates that easier access by minors to cross-sex medical interventions without parental consent is associated with higher risk of suicide,” Greene added in the report.
In Ireland, the provision of puberty blockers and transgender treatments for children has also been a subject of intense debate — with opponents voicing serious concern relating to the welfare of children who potentially undergo such treatments.
In May, The Times in the UK broke the story that Ireland’s children’s ombudsman, Niall Muldoon, had admitted that the argument made by opponents of his call for transgender children to have ‘gender-affirming’ access to treatment was “strong”.
In April 2021, Mr Muldoon penned an opinion piece in a Sunday newspaper in which he argued that “gender-affirming care for trans young people must be a priority” for Ireland. The piece attracted criticism from people who voiced concern about children here receiving puberty blockers and other medical interventions before they reach adulthood.
The Times wrote that Mr Muldoon “admitted to colleagues” that an anonymous critique of his op-ed presented a “strong and credible argument” against his position.
In response to Mr Muldoon, a children’s psychotherapist made the counter-argument that most children who feel they are “born in the wrong body” will “grow out of it”. She said that treatment of “100 per cent affirmed” under-16s as being transgender was “bonkers” and represented “utterly bad practise”.
In response to her letter, Mr Muldoon insisted that he believed 16 and 17-year-olds in Ireland could “only self-declare” their gender, and that he assumed this was also available to those under 16 given they had parental consent.
“I do not expect or encourage any medical or physical changes before that self-declaration,” he said, adding: “Therefore, nothing is irreversible”.
The Times reported that the children’s ombudsman shared his analysis of the letter written by the psychotherapist in an email to colleagues.
“I believe this is a strong and credible argument against our position and therefore, whether we come out publicly or not. I think it is important we have considered it and have a response available to us”, he said.
When asked by The Times if Mr Muldoon’s views on transgender treatments for under-16s had shifted, his spokeswoman said that the office “is committed to examining the issues further from a children’s rights perspective”.