Natal males referred to a gender clinic showed extremely high psychiatric problems, with no evidence of reduction in psychiatric treatment needs following medical transition at the group level.

Among natal males who underwent medical gender reassignment, the need for specialist psychiatric treatment increased from 21.6% before transition to 54.5% afterwards. More than half still required intensive psychiatric care during follow-up, showing that medical transition did not resolve their severe mental health issues.

In this Finnish nationwide cohort, individuals with male registered sex had high rates of psychiatric treatment both before and after referral, and even after adjusting for prior mental health history, their risk remained several times higher than male controls. At the group level, there was no evidence that medical transition reduced psychiatric treatment needs.

Ruuska, S.-M., Tuisku, K., Holttinen, T., and Kaltiala, R. (2026). “Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Contacted Specialised Gender Identity Services in Finland in 1996–2019: A Register Study,” Acta Paediatrica: 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.70533.