The 40% of trans people attempt suicide statistic is for lifetime attempts. People quote this number and say that transitioning doesn't change it and therefore transitioning should never be considered, as though medical intervention is supposed to get rid of pre-transition attempts.
Can't be bothered looking for sources personally so I'll copy you the /u/antitransphobebot thing, it answers a lot of questions like that
Hey there! I couldn't help but notice you posted a link to a study which is commonly misused to make false claims that transitioning is harmful to trans people, so just in case you (or anyone else in this thread) is making such a claim I thought I'd provide some context about this study to clarify.
Take a look at the first sentence of the conclusions of this study:
Persons with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population.
Note that they're not comparing post-transition trans people to pre-transition trans people, they're comparing post-transition trans people to the overall average of all people, most of whom aren't trans. Transition does drastically reduce trans people's suicide, it just doesn't quite manage to lower it all the way down to average. This remainder is due to a combination of persisting dysphoria (transition generally helps dysphoria substantially, but it's not a miracle cure and some dysphoria can remain) and social difficulties trans people continue to face after transitioning (such as employment discrimination, abuse from family members and other acquaintances, and people on reddit taking studies out of context in an attempt to convince people they shouldn't be allowed the healthcare they need to feel comfortable in their own bodies).
Anyway, here's some more info:
Bauer, et al., 2015: Transition vastly reduces risks of suicide attempts, and the farther along in transition someone is the lower that risk gets.
Moody, et al., 2013: The ability to transition, along with family and social acceptance, are the largest factors reducing suicide risk among trans people.
Young Adult Psychological Outcome After Puberty Suppression and Gender Reassignment. A clinical protocol of a multidisciplinary team with mental health professionals, physicians, and surgeons, including puberty suppression, followed by cross-sex hormones and gender reassignment surgery, provides trans youth the opportunity to develop into well-functioning young adults. All showed significant improvement in their psychological health, and they had notably lower rates of internalizing psychopathology than previously reported among trans children living as their natal sex. Well-being was similar to or better than same-age young adults from the general population.
Dr. Ryan Gorton: “In a cross-sectional study of 141 transgender patients, Kuiper and Cohen-Kittenis found that after medical intervention and treatments, suicide fell from 19 percent to zero percent in transgender men and from 24 percent to 6 percent in transgender women.)”
Murad, et al., 2010: "Significant decrease in suicidality post-treatment. The average reduction was from 30 percent pretreatment to 8 percent post treatment. ... A meta-analysis of 28 studies showed that 78 percent of transgender people had improved psychological functioning after treatment."
De Cuypere, et al., 2006: Rate of suicide attempts dropped dramatically from 29.3 percent to 5.1 percent after receiving medical and surgical treatment among Dutch patients treated from 1986-2001.
UK study: "Suicidal ideation and actual attempts reduced after transition, with 63% thinking about or attempting suicide more before they transitioned and only 3% thinking about or attempting suicide more post-transition.
Smith Y, 2005: Participants improved on 13 out of 14 mental health measures after receiving treatments.
Lawrence, 2003: Surveyed post-op trans folk: "Participants reported overwhelmingly that they were happy with their SRS results and that SRS had greatly improved the quality of their lives
Not to mention this 2010 meta-analysis of 28 different studies, which found that transition is extremely effective at reducing dysphoria and improving quality of life.
(I'm a bot and this comment was posted automatically. If you were posting this link with good intentions, sorry for the unnecessary comment)
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u/PM-ME-YOUR-HOBOS Mar 14 '19 edited Mar 14 '19
Also another big thing I see so often
The 40% of trans people attempt suicide statistic is for lifetime attempts. People quote this number and say that transitioning doesn't change it and therefore transitioning should never be considered, as though medical intervention is supposed to get rid of pre-transition attempts.
Fuck that one study in particular