Finland’s 25-Year Gender Study Shocks the World: What It Really Found | Ep. 156

In this episode of The Wellness Connection, Fiona Kane breaks down a new peer-reviewed study from Finland that tracked every gender-referred adolescent in the country for up to 25 years. The findings suggest that psychiatric needs didn’t improve after gender reassignment - they increased significantly. This is not surprising to those of us who have been paying close attention.

Fiona also talks openly about:

 - Why context matters when discussing complex topics
 - Her stance on gender ideology vs. individuals
 - The personal impact these issues have had on her life
 - How “being kind” can sometimes obscure real harm
 - Key takeaways from Finland’s newly released research
 - How this study connects to earlier findings, including the UK Cass Review

If you want to go deeper, watch Episodes 106 and 107 for more background.

Remember to like, subscribe, and share if you find this helpful.

Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/

Credit for the music used in this podcast:

• Intro Music by  Musinova from Pixabay
• Outro Music from Pixabay

Transcript

Welcome And Study Preview

Fiona Kane 0:14

Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection. I'm your host, Fiona Kane. Today I'm going to be talking about a really important study that has just come out in regards to gender affirmation and mental health. Before I go there though, I just wanted to address a couple of bits and pieces. So, first of all, I wanted to, you know, now there's 156 episodes now, and I don't get to fully explain myself in every episode about everything. So sometimes people take things out of context or misunderstand me. A lot of these topics I've been talking about for a long time, so you can hear me talking about them in more detail in other episodes. So I encourage you to do that if you're not understanding the context or ask questions. You're welcome to ask questions and ask me about explain why you said that this way or why you mean it that way. But yeah, anyway, these are complicated topics. All the topics I talk about are complicated topics, and you never get to cover everything or explain everything. And if I did, if I used if I explained every word I was going to say with another explanation, it would be a three-hour podcast. So you know, I don't always get to explain in detail every opinion or everything on the day when I'm talking about a certain topic because it would take too long. In saying that, just because it's a while since I have said this, I just want to clarify a few things. So when I talk about the issues of gender, so-called medicine, and these uh these kinds of issues, I just to for clarity's sake, I don't hate people who are LGBT, whatever, wherever they categorize themselves and that. I don't never have, don't have an issue with that. I just do not have an issue with individuals, or have an issue with ideologies and with people who are actively involved in harming other people. And so my issue around gender ideology and the trans issue, etc., is around the harms happening through it. And my concern actually is for the people involved. I believe that the many of the people involved who are who do uh who are um who identify as trans, I think that they are being harmed by this ideology and by the people who are going along with this ideology. So just clarifying it's not about hate, it's not about hating any individuals, it's not about and actually if anything, it is quite funny too, because well, it's not funny, but what happens is the way to shut you down is to say that you hate gays or or whatever, and that's it's quite the opposite. In fact, I think this ideology is really, really harmful to gay people, and so part of this thing is protecting them as well, and and pointing out that they are being harmed. So just clarifying that you know, none of this comes from hatred of anyone. I I don't hate anyone, I just hate the ideology, and I um and I really want things to change. So uh the other feedback that I've had is that I can come across as very angry, and you know, to be fair, I am very angry about some of these topics, and I so I understand that, I understand why it comes across that way. Um I'm really, really angry because I think this is going to, we're gonna look back and say this is one of the most horrific things that we ever did. Um, and how did we do that? And who who said that that was okay. I believe it's going to be one of those issues where we look back and and when you look at the history of you know psychiatry, uh, and they used to stick nitty needles up people's nose into their brain to fix them, you know. The sort of things that have been done in the name of fixing people historically uh have been very, very harmful. Uh, and so uh I think it's gonna be another one of those where we actually say, Oh my god, how did they do that? Why would they do that? I can't imagine it. So uh so I think it's one of the issues of our time, and and I also have been touched by it personally, as in people around me and people in my life who've been affected by this. So I won't go into a lot of detail. I've also lost friendships over it, uh, because this ideology is so extreme, you must uh it's all in, or you're the enemy, one or the other. Uh so it has touched my life personally uh in that way, uh, in friendships and and in young people around me who've been affected by this. So uh yeah, so my approach to this is all about the fact that I am really concerned about the harms and I want to draw attention to it because I think a lot of people, you know, you you kind of see this whole ideology, this whole gender ideology thing as oh, you know, let people be themselves and and what's the harm and let's just be kind. And the problem is that if you don't really know a lot about it, you can be fooled into thinking, oh yeah, let's just be kind. And I'm not telling people to be unkind, I'm just saying that the let's be kind thing isn't helpful in this situation because harm is being done in the name of being kind. So uh, and kind people are being kind of used as pawns in this because you're thinking, well, just be kind, you know. Uh, and um, yeah, if you don't fully understand it, that feels like the right thing to do. And I'm not telling, like I said, not telling people to be unkind, just telling them to just encouraging people to understand this issue a little bit better so that you can understand what you're being kind about and who you you should maybe be be being kind to and who you're not being kind to. Uh, the other thing I wanted to say as well is um episode 106 and 107 are the episodes where I've talked about this issue a lot in depth, especially in regards to children. And so you can go back to those episodes to get a bit of grounding on what I'm going to be talking about today. Anyway, uh I'll just leave it at that for now. But just yeah, I trying to try really hard not to come across as super angry because I don't think that's fun listening to a podcast with angry woman uh shouting down the down the uh down the microphone. Uh but I'll also it's a really serious topic, and I am really angry about it, so I'm gonna try and find a balance there of um how to do it. Anyway, um feedback's always uh I'm happy to get feedback, uh constructive feedback, and uh and at the end of the day, I'm getting more and more listeners, so I'm noticing people are engaging more. Um thank you for that. Thank you for everyone who has been, you know, like, subscribe, share, and um, and and rating the podcast because that makes a difference, that helps that happen. So more and more people are tuning in, which makes me think that um the topics I'm talking about are of interest to people and it's useful information. And look, I've just gone done a deep dive in a lot of these topics that other people might not have had the time to do because I don't have children, and so I have um in my spare time I have time to look into some things that other people don't get time to do because they're too busy raising a family. Anyway, so I just sort of clarifying a couple of things before I continue. But today what I'm going to be talking about is there is uh a study has come out of Finland. Uh now this was I'm doing I'm recording this on the 9th of April, so it'll be a couple of weeks before it comes out, so just keep in mind the date. This only just came out a few days ago, so the beginning of April, and um, and it was uh in Finland. And so um Finland tracked gen every gender-related ad. Okay, let me say it again. Finland tracked every gender-referred adolescent in the country for up to 25 years, and what they found is their psychiatric needs didn't improve after gender reassignment. They surged. So this is a landmark peer review study, you know, just dropped a few days ago, and this is what it this is um what it tells us. Now, also just uh saying that this is in Acta Pediatrica, so uh so that's where you can find this study if you're looking for it. Uh, and um, and I'm gonna just be talking about what the issue is, like what what they've found, and uh I'll I'll sort of read from the study but and also add my bits into it as well to explain um my uh feelings around this. Now let me just find it again. So I've lost it. Here you go. So yeah, the study was published in this week, so this being the 9th of April, uh, in um Acta Pediatrica. It was led by Professor it's a Finnish name. I don't know how to say the Finnish name, but uh Richter Richter Katu Ktaila, and I thought I've said completely wrong at um the Tampere University Hospital, which I've probably also said very wrong. Uh so this person has run Finland's youth gender clinic since 2011. She also served on the UK's CAS review advisory board. And the CAS review was a review that came out of the UK a couple of years ago, or probably maybe three or four years ago now, um, explaining again wrong way, go back, wrong way go back. You know, we thought that gender medicine was helping young people. Turns out it's not. So that was a big review that came out a few years ago. So essentially the study is called Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adolescents and Youth Adults Who Contacted Specialized Gender Identity Services in Finland in 1996 to 2019, a register study. So Finland, what they do is they centralize their um all of the gender identity assessments into two university hospitals. So because of the health register, it's a mandatory reporting, patients can't opt out. So the data set is a complete data set uh of uh the fate of every gender referral adolescent in the country from 1996 to 2019. And um, it's important to set to mention that like I was just talking about the CAS review review a moment ago. One of the things that they found with a CAS review, because people who are proponents of of um gender transitions and gender transitions in children, that kind of thing, they say things like, oh, there's only a 1% regret rate, right? So when you look at where they get that data from, what Hillary Cass found in the Cass review is she found that uh she asked for the data from these uh from the various clinics, they either refused to give the data or they had data, but they only followed up for three months. So there's only two reasons you'd refuse to give the data. Either the data didn't work for you, or you didn't take the data. And I think that they didn't take the data was a major part of this, right? Because if you don't, if you don't write it down, if you don't um if you don't enter this data into into your systems, then there's no problem because there's no data, right? And so what they were doing is um they were only tracking people for three months. The ones who did track people, only tracking them for three months after transition. Now, what we do know is because these young people are told over and over and over again, because these are these people, majority of them have mental health issues, like many mental health issues beyond this. This is just one of many. What they are told is once you have your transition, once you have your surgery, get on your hormones, and do all of the transition things, you will be great, you will be fine, you will feel good, and all of your mental health problems will go away. But essentially, the transition will solve all of your problems, then you're going to be happy and you're not gonna have anxiety and you're not gonna have depression and you're gonna have a great life, right? So, this is what they're solved, this is what they're told. So, in the first three months after the surgery, they have what they call gender euphoria, and many of them, some of them regret it straight away, but many of them don't. Um, by the way, I'm not saying that all people who do gender transition regret it. I am not saying that. What I am saying is there is a really big percentage of them. We need to keep the data so that we know whether or not this is a good thing or not, but also because there's so many of them and there's been such a big issue, particularly among young women, uh where it's been more about the friendship groups and and social contagion than it has been about actual that they've got this issue. We need to make sure that we keep children safe. Okay, adults can make their own decisions, we can keep the data, and then people can decide what works for them, right? So um, but this is about keeping children safe, and the whole 1% thing is BS. Either they haven't kept the data or they've only followed them for three months in that period where they have this um where they're elated and they have this euphoria because they think, oh, now all my problems are solved, right? So they they it really doesn't set in until uh a time after that that they really uh understand what they have done. So anyway, so what they did is they uh they they compared a cohort of 2,083 individuals against 16,643 matched population controls, and they followed up uh for 25 years. So not a small study. Uh so it's a really, really good national picture. This is so among those who underwent the medical gender reassignment, the increase was stark. This is the increase in mental health issues, this is. So feminizing procedures. So this is men uh wanting to become women, becoming women, not that they can, but anyway, um trying to. Psychiatric morbidity morbidity rose from 9.8% to 60.7%. So essentially their psychological issues rose by I don't know, about 50 points or something. The opposite masculinizing procedures for girls who wanting to become boys, they rose from 21% up to 54%. The procedures did not resolve the distress. And that is the point of this. If you just have one take-home message from all of this, it's just the procedures did not resolve the distress. And this is what people need to understand before they they uh go ahead and do these procedures. The good thing is in some places around the world they're stopping doing these things. In Australia, we're kind of putting it on a hold in some places, doing in other places, essentially, though, Australia still wants to go full steam ahead, because we think it's a good thing here, even though the rest of the world has been doing this for a long time and have realized that it's it's not a good thing. So after adjusting for prior psychiatric history, all gender-related adolescents, whether or not they had undergone procedures, faced similarly elevated ongoing risk. So approximately five times higher than male controls, three times higher than female controls. This is huge. So we're actually, by doing these surgeries, by doing these changes, we're actually giving these people mental health issues or like significantly increasing their mental health issues. The author, and see that see that's the thing, and I talked about it more in more in detail on the other episode, so go back to them. But what doctors do is doctors actually often tell these young people that they if they don't get your surgery, you're suicide, and they tell the parents that, and they teach them in chat, in chats and online groups and discussions to say they're suicidal so that they actually get what they want. Uh, so uh the whole thing is like what it comes down to when you when you when these advocates argue with you over this topic, they all say it's it saves people from suicide. So if you don't do this, then they're all going to suicide and they're calling that a genocide. They're saying there's a transgenocide because we're not allowing these children to transition. And um, and but that figure that that that they say that there's more suicide. But they say it because they say it, right? Because it works for them. So they continue to say that suicide rate goes up if they don't get to have the surgeries, if they don't transition. The truth is the opposite of that, that uh transition is the thing that's most likely to cause that to happen. Uh, so uh the study, where are we? Uh here we go. This authors noted plainly in some individuals, the medical procedures appear to be linked to deterioration in mental health. This is a peer-reviewed journal. This is the lead clinicians, this is um, this is the lead clinicians in Finland's national gender clinic. It's their words, right? It's her words. The study also found that those referred after 2010, when Finland saw a tenfold referral surge. What happened when suddenly 10 times as many people were trans? Social contagion, and telling people that this all their problems are going to be solved because he just happened to be born in the wrong body. That's what happened. Anyway, um, that was my bit. If you didn't recognize it, that was my bit added to it. So uh, so yeah, tenfold referral surge arrived with far greater pre-existing psychiatric needs. So essentially, so here we go: 40 47.9% had already required specialist psychiatric treatment before their first clinic contact. Okay. This helps you understand that these are people with comorbidities, they've already got other issues. And the problem is that that in um in many places the standard for care for psych for psychiatrists is called is called affirming affirm affirmation only. There's doctors who are losing their jobs in Australia for not going along with that, and in other places. So affirmation only means if that person comes to you and says, I believe I'm in the wrong body, that you just say, Oh, yes, you must be right, you're in the wrong body. Yes, you're really opposite sex, and full stop, it just goes from there. So that and your problems are all caused by that. That's it'll be solved when you uh you know have the surgery. So affirmation only is uh is what they do. Now, in psychiatry and psychology, you don't affirm anything really. What you do is you explore things with people, but the reason people come to you as a therapist is because they're having a problem. So if they walked in and saying, I'm having this problem, but you know, I'm right about everything and you know it's all good, and you affirmed that and said, Oh yes, you're right about everything, you're not helping them, are you? So in every other subject, we understand that affirmation is the last thing you do. What you do is you say, No, let's explore. Okay, the point of the therapy is to explore. You're having all of these issues, what is actually going on, and how are you contributing in it, contributing to it, and what are other things contributing to it, and how can we resolve it? But this is a complete opposite, whereas you're having this issue, oh yeah, you're definitely in the wrong body. Oh, yes, you're definitely you know a girl trapped in a boy's body or whatever, they start from there, and so once you go down that track, and see people say that people often don't understand how this happens, but when you have health professionals saying, Yes, you know, you you are in the wrong body, why wouldn't you believe that? And health professionals say if you don't let your child do this, they're gonna end their life. Why would you not believe that? Of course you would believe that. It's terrifying. So uh, so that's you know the the way the reason that they get away with it is is for that reason, and um, and so uh here we go. So they go, um, where were we? Um okay, so yeah, I said 49.47.9% had already required special psychiatric treatment before their first contact. And the thing is, what they're doing is they're seeing gender dysphoria as being the cure to all the other things rather than being probably the well, it's it's just along with all of the other things, another mental health issue. Um, here we go. The author suggests the pattern may indicate that for some adolescents, mental health difficulties are presenting as concerns about gender identity, not the reverse. So the mental health issues they have, they're they're present, they're presented as gender issues, but they're not about the gender, um, or they're not only about gender. And that's where they're miss mistaking this because and if you you know if you're in a society where health Professionals where uh where media, where everyone else is affirming that you know, oh yes, everyone, well, a whole bunch of people are accidentally born in the wrong body, and and doctors accidentally identify them as the wrong thing, and that's that's a thing. And um, and you've been sold this as being a solution to all of your problems. Well, why wouldn't you present, you know, you're having all these issues, you know. I and I know for a fact that uh the people in my life, uh, you know, some of them found out that they had like what the issue was online, so in chat groups or wherever, but they've gone in and and you know, oh, what's wrong with me? And they've found out, oh, you you know, you're born in the wrong body. So it's these days kids are all growing up online. So if you are having problems and you're sort of trying to find out what the answer is, and the answer you're getting from whether it be online forums, whether it be from your friends, your friendship groups, or whether it be from health professionals, if the answer you're getting, oh, is you're born in the wrong body, of course you're going to be presenting and saying, Oh, you know, I've realized that I've born in the wrong body. And so much of this uh is fear of going through puberty because puberty is really hard and it's really frightening and it can be really difficult. And there's such a fear of going through it, especially, like I said, a lot of these people, like the data says, a lot of these people have mental health issues. Many of them have been um you know, uh abused, right, in in that way. And if you've been abused and then you'll start, and before you go through puberty, then you start going through puberty and you start becoming more attractive to the opposite sex and uh and more of a sexual interest to other people, people start noticing you in a certain way. Can you see how that would set off alarm bells for a young person who'd been abused in any way? So you can see why uh why they fear going through puberty, but stopping them going through puberty isn't the solution. The solution is to deal with the whatever the contributing issue is, and that's what's not happening there is when is when we're not doing that. The other thing, you know, and like I said, it's everywhere. I I did a couple of I'm catching up on all of my uh CPE points for my uh for my for my association, and I've done two courses in the last two days, uh, webinars, where in one of them continually the uh the very, very scientific person, I know this person, this person was uh a lecturer and uh and and uh and she mentored me and and um taught me uh when in my course 20 years ago, and uh she's a big name in in the industry. And she continually said, even though she's absolutely scientific, you couldn't find someone more science-based, she continually said AFAB, which is assigned female at birth. So she couldn't say woman, she was saying AFAB. And I've said it before, there's no such thing as assigned, it's observed. Doctors observe a child when it's born and they observe their sex. Now, in a very, very small, less than 1% of cases where people have difference, well, they used to call it um they what have they used to call it? Anyway, it's difference of sex um disorder, uh, something along those lines. People who have that, there might be confusion about what they're seeing, and so there might be a very, very small percentage of people where it's mistaken, but largely and for the majority of people throughout the history of time, you are observed, your sex is observed, it's not assigned. So referring to people as AF, no, how about women, right? How about women? And it was just so disappointing. And then another one the next day it was a bit less concerning, but she kind of just said at the beginning of the seminar, oh well, for the purposes of this, whenever I say women, I'm referring to people born in a biologically well. Why is that why? There's no need for any of that, right? A woman is a woman, and even if you have chosen to transition or whatever you've chosen to do, biologically, you have the body of whatever it is, you have the organs of whatever. And so you have to live in reality as far as your risks and your issues, etc., around your body of origin, right? So uh regardless, yeah. So so you can see why, and and the other thing that's happened actually is um I won't go into it now, it's it's it's gonna be too much, but anyway, media health professionals, whatever, they all they all use this, they've all started using all of this language that I rail up, rail about a lot. And so that just go that adds to the confusion and adds to why people are believing this stuff. Uh, and and you know, why wouldn't you when everyone's everyone's saying it, everyone's agreeing with it, must be true. So, anyway, back to the study. Uh, so uh the study's conclusion could not be clearer. Psychiatric needs do not subside after medical gender reassignment. This is the finding the gender medicine movement has um, they've staked their entire claim on, and the claim it doesn't hold. It does not hold. So, um, you know, like I said before, in Australia there's two clinicians that are facing regulatory action. One is uh Dr. Andrew Amos and the other one is Gillian, I'm trying to remember her name. Sorry, Gillian, Gillian Spencer. Uh, and they're both, it's just because they recognize sex, that's it, they recognize sex uh and um they acknowledge that that's why they're in trouble. It's ridiculous. Uh so uh so I think it's important for us to understand that we need to look at the data and we need to understand that this is not helping, it's harming and not hurt helping in many, many cases. And like I said, uh more my biggest issue with this is children, but it's under 18. But I do I am concerned about young adults as well. Ultimately, you make your own decisions when you're an adult, even then, I think there should be big restrictions around this because the data just does not support it. I think that we really need to put the not just put the brakes on this, we need to stop all of this. We need to look at the data, we need to tell the truth about these issues, we need to treat people for what they really have and for the problems they really have, and not go into the delusion of you're born in the wrong body. Uh, like I've said a million times before, uh affirmation only. Okay, so affirmation only at the moment means just means acknowledging that the person is in the wrong body. So affirming someone is saying you are in the wrong body, and so your rest of your life you are going to be a patient, uh, a medical and psychiatric patient to manage the fact that you are born in the wrong body. So you're actually burdening someone with a burden for the rest of their life instead of affirmation, which is no, you're beautiful as you are. You can be how you want to be. There's no right way of being a girl, there's no right way of being a boy. Just be who you want to be. But your your body is okay, it is part of who you are. Going through uh going what we do know is going through puberty solves this issue in most cases, and um and you know, but learning to embrace the body you have and who you are is wonderful, and it's quite one of those weird things, isn't it? Because the body positivity movement, there's like a lot of people who are into all this stuff, they're all about body positivity, embrace who you are, and you know, regardless of your size or the health of every size movement movement, and all those things. So they're all about embrace who you are and be who you are, but then when it comes to this, it's like no, you're not that, you're the opposite thing, and embrace that. And that's being kind, embrace who you are, which is completely rejecting your own body. So being kind in this is completely rejecting your own body. Okay. Do you get why I'm seeing saying that this is so harmful? Anyway, I think I will leave it at that for today. Uh I think the uh you know the the Finnish authors, they've recommended recommended um recommendation, precise, thorough psychiatric assessment and ongoing treatment before and after any medical procedures. Psychiatric needs need to be adequately met. In other words, deal with all of the issues that led to this, and you'll probably find when you deal with those issues, this will not long no longer be an issue, or if it is, it'll be a small percentage of people. But deal with the psychiatric issue before you turn it into a medical issue and a bigger psychiatric issue. And help people, just help people and don't harm them, first do no harm. Whatever happened to Hippocrates said first do no harm. And this this ideology is encouraging, do all the harm in the world. Uh, and um, and you know, it's it's a great thing, let's just go forward and everyone's happy and everyone's getting better, and everyone it this helps everyone when it's simply not true. Anyway, uh I will leave it at that. Uh, please, you know, give me your feedback, like, subscribe, share so other people will hear about this podcast. Tell me how I went on the angry angry meter. I'm trying not to. I am really angry about this, but I also wanted to present this in a way that is accessible and in a way that doesn't feel like the ranty lady. I don't know, uh there's a balance in there somewhere. I'm not quite sure if I found it. But anyway, I hope you have a great week. Talk to you next week. And um, and yeah, please uh share this with people in your life you think that need to understand this stuff and go back to those other episodes if you want more clarification about my position on some of these things. That's episode 106 and 107. Anyway, have a great week and I will talk to you again soon. Thanks, bye bye.