Putting On The Brakes: Why Johns Hopkins Hospital No Longer Does Transgender Surgery

Like the voice of one crying in the wilderness, I would like to share some information.  I realize it is dangerous to step in front of a freight train and shout “Slow down!!” and that is what this feel like, but here goes.  With cover stories on Vanity Fair and the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star on transgender people, I want to say that there is more to the story that needs to be considered as well.

First of all, what a challenging situation to love and care for someone struggling with what is commonly called “gender identity issues,” especially when the person with the struggle is our child.  I certainly would not want to “pile on” any parents struggling with that, but especially for anyone in that situation right now, I want to offer some information for consideration that is getting lost.  I know I would want to know it if I were a parent in this situation.

Because it is hard to find, and usually only available to subscribers, let me share three paragraphs from an article regarding transgender surgery by Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital that I first read in the Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2014 issue:

When children who reported transgender feelings were tracked without medical or surgical treatment at both Vanderbilt University and London's Portman Clinic, 70%-80% of them spontaneously lost those feelings. Some 25% did have persisting feelings; what differentiates those individuals

remains to be discerned.

We at Johns Hopkins University—which in the 1960s was the first American medical center to venture into "sex reassignment surgery"—launched a study in the 1970s comparing the outcomes of transgendered people who had the surgery with the outcomes of those who did not. Most of the surgically treated patients described themselves as "satisfied" by the results, but their subsequent psycho-social adjustments were no better than those who didn't have the surgery. And so at Hopkins we stopped doing sex-reassignment surgery, since producing a "satisfied" but still troubled patient seemed an inadequate reason for surgically amputating normal organs.

It now appears that our long-ago decision was a wise one. A 2011 study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden produced the most illuminating results yet regarding the transgendered, evidence that should give advocates pause.  The long-term study—up to 30 years—followed 324 people who had sex-reassignment surgery. The study revealed that beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable non-transgender population. This disturbing result has as yet no explanation but probably reflects the growing sense of isolation reported by the aging transgendered after surgery. The high suicide rate certainly challenges the surgery prescription.

Overall, this article has much more to say and connects to a good deal of research.  And sadly, none of that is being heard or considered.

Note that this article raises flags regarding transgender surgery based on social research alone.  It is not a biblical or religious argument being presented here.  In the interest of full disclosure, I am happy to say that I am a minister of the Gospel.  And I do think that the Scriptures give me a perspective that helps me frame and better understand transgender issues – convictions like the brokenness of creation and the human ability to be deceived and confused are two that come to mind – but this article touches none of these.  On the basis of commonly recognized social research, there is good reason to go slowly with regard to transgender surgery.

Again, I have no condemnation for people who struggle, and nothing but support for parents and families who face real-time, real-life decisions.  But aren't we all best served by having the best information at hand for those decisions?  And all of the information?  I think there is good reason as a culture to slow down what feels like an out of control freight train.

Resources
Click Here for Transgender Surgery Isn't The Solution by Dr Paul McHugh.  Wall Street Journal - June 12, 2014

Click Here for Johns Hopkins Psychiatrist: Transgender is ‘Mental Disorder;' Sex Change ‘Biologically Impossible’ - a summary and updated comments on the article by Dr McHugh