Psychiatric need did not go away after the clinic pathway. That is what this Finnish register shows.
On 4 April 2026, Acta Paediatrica e-published Ruuska, Tuisku, Holttinen, and Kaltiala: Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Contacted Specialised Gender Identity Services in Finland in 1996–2019. Same nationwide cohort as their 2024 suicide-death paper: 2,083 gender-referred people under 23 vs 16,643 matched controls.
The outcome here is specialist-level psychiatric treatment, not suicide deaths. It was already higher before referral (45.7% vs 15.0%) and still higher two or more years after (61.7% vs 14.6%). Among those who received what the authors call medical gender reassignment — sex-rejecting procedures — the share in specialist psychiatric care rose: 9.8% to 60.7% after feminising reassignment, 21.6% to 54.5% after masculinising. The authors: psychiatric needs do not subside after medical gender reassignment.
Read the paper.
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