If Gender Dysphoria Is A Social Contagion, What's The Remedy? | Zaksheske
The more we learn about gender dysphoria, the more it makes one wonder: "what the hell is going on here?" What was once considered an extremely rare mental health disorder is suddenly becoming more and more prevalent among young people.
UPDATE: After this article was published, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning "gender-affirming care" for minors.
The massive increase in gender dysphoria among young people has psychiatrists questioning the rapid uptick in cases and wondering if there is a broader cause leading to diagnoses increasing at an exponential rate.
According to a new study out of England, "incidence rates of recorded gender dysphoria/incongruence increased from 0.14 to 4.4 per 10,000 person years" from 2011 to 2021, which represented a 5,000% increase.
This comes on the heels of a German study that showed "for most young people, the gender-identity related diagnosis (F64) does not persist after 5 years."
L.G.B.T. activists and their supporters rally in support of transgender people on the steps of New York City Hall, October 24, 2018 in New York City. The group gathered to speak out against the Trump administration's stance toward transgender people.
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Is it really a simple case of increased diagnoses, or is something else going on? The authors of the study concluded that "social factors" are likely to be one of the major contributing factors.
"While increased awareness has made it easier for some children to express their struggles, we cannot ignore the possibility that social contagion, along with peer influence and social media—may be contributing to this surge," psychotherapist Jonathan Alpert told Fox News Digital.
"What concerns me as a psychotherapist is the speed at which some young people move toward life-altering medical interventions without sufficient exploration of underlying psychological factors. We need to tap the brakes on this," Alpert warned.
"In most cases, the will of the child has been corrupted by others telling them what’s ‘wrong’ with them and what would make them happy," said psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman.
"Social media rewards children for getting hormones and surgery with attention from ‘likes’ and positive comments. They think it’s ‘cool’ that the child is rebelling against society and choosing who they want to be."
Transgender rights supporters and opponents rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court as the high court hears arguments in a case on transgender health rights on December 04, 2024 in Washington, DC.
(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Lieberman added a potentially sinister explanation for the sudden rise in the prevalence of this rare disorder: money.
"Diagnosing gender dysphoria is a gift that keeps on giving because of this new demand for hormones, surgery, and so on," Lieberman said.
Generally, "follow the money" is a good rule of thumb when it comes to figuring out the motives for a sudden change in societal behavior.
RELATED: Researcher Withheld Study Results On Puberty-Blockers Because It Showed They Don't Help Kids
Unfortunately, treating young people who are struggling with their "identity" with talk therapy or other similar interventions doesn't pay nearly as well as more drastic interventions like surgery and lifelong medication.
Mia Hughes, a senior fellow at MacDonald-Laurier Institute, calls gender dysphoria the most "obvious social contagion in all of history."
Hughes likens gender dysphoria to the rise of bulimia nervosa in the 1990s.
It's not hard to see how the comparisons make sense. The media is constantly bombarding society with stories about transgenderism and, in most cases, applauds those people as "brave" or even goes as far as to label transgender people as "heroes."
It's not just the media, either. Elites in society, particularly those in the arts, are just as guilty.
Back in 2020, Time Magazine reported that Elton John said "members of the transgender community are the bravest people in the world and his personal heroes."
And what young person doesn't want to be known as a hero?
What's going on in the medical system that's helping to spread gender dysphoria?
The mother of Sarah McBride, the trans-identifying male Congress member who is hailed as a trailblazer, penned a lengthy article about McBride's transition titled, "A Mother's Story."
A few things in the article struck me. The first:
On Christmas Day 2011, our youngest child, then a junior at American University, president of the student body, and who we believed to be our son at the time, came out to us as transgender. We were totally blindsided. I was devastated, crying uncontrollably. I saw my child’s future crumble, feared violence and envisioned discrimination at every turn.
[McBride's father] Dave went online immediately to the National Center for Transgender Equality, one of the leading transgender advocacy groups in the country. When he read that more than 40% of transgender people attempt suicide, his heart dropped. But he also read that with a loving and supportive family, that percentage drops in half. And with a supportive community, it drops even further.
So, these parents are told by their child that the child is "transgender" and the first research they do, essentially, says that if the parents aren't "supportive," the child is twice as likely to commit suicide. That seems like a pretty good way to scare a confused parent into compliance.
That's something that McBride also intimated to the parents:
"Can’t you wait until you graduate?" I asked.
"No. I have waited 21 years to be who I truly am. If I wait any longer, I could become depressed, start using drugs or attempt suicide."
That's pretty scary for a parent to hear, I would imagine.
Sarah McBride, a trans-identifying male Congress member who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, is hailed as a trailblazer and a hero by transgender "activists."
(Imagn Images)
The second thing that struck me from the article:
During those first several days, Dave and I decided that we needed to be proactive in our journey to understanding what Sarah was experiencing, and making sure that she was healthy emotionally and physically.
To that end, [McBride's brother] Sean reached out to one of the leading psychiatrists in this country who treats transgender children, Dr. Edgardo Menvielle, at Washington DC Children’s Hospital, and set up an appointment for the three of us just five days after Christmas.
Dr. Menvielle met with Sarah first, then Dave and me next, and finally the three of us together. He confirmed that Sarah was transgender, and that she did not have any other psychological issues other than the gender dysphoria.
He felt confident that she could reach her full potential and that her future was still bright. For the first time over the last several days, he gave us hope for our child.
This is where I started to have questions, especially given my personal experience. My wife has a chronic condition called POTS, which stands for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome.
It impacts her daily life and is quite debilitating. Why do I bring that up? Because our experience is that traversing the American medical system can be quite difficult. POTS is an uncommon condition, and there are very few doctors who specialize in it.
That's usually how it goes: rarer conditions have fewer doctors who specialize in them. Far more people have POTS than gender dysphoria, but there are far fewer physicians.
There are thousands of doctors who suddenly specialize in "transgender medicine" and gender dysphoria. Why? As the study indicates, around 1 in 100,000 people were diagnosed with the disorder in 2011.
Catherine Tuerk, left, and Dr. Edgardo Menvielle started a program at Children's National Medical Center for "gender-variant" kids. Menvielle diagnosed Sarah McBride with gender dysphoria and said McBride was transgender after just one appointment, according to McBride's mother.
(Kevin Clark/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
In addition to the abundance of practitioners, how was it so easy for McBride to get an appointment with one of the "leading psychiatrists in this country who treats transgender children"?
I don't know if you've ever tried to get an appointment with a "leading specialist" for a condition, but that generally isn't a quick process. Certainly not in my wife's experience.
Yet, the McBrides were seen by this doctor in less than a week, and in between Christmas and New Year's, no less. That seems odd, at least to me.
Finally, this specialist diagnosed McBride with gender dysphoria during the first office visit. Again, this has not been my personal experience, nor the experience of anyone I know seeking medical help for any other condition.
Doctors usually want to run a lot of tests and make sure they rule out everything else before settling on a diagnosis. But, apparently, McBride was diagnosed with an extremely rare mental health disorder in a few hours.
Not only that, this doctor concluded that McBride "did not have any other psychological issues other than the gender dysphoria."
That's one hell of a doctor if he ruled out all other psychological conditions after one conversation.
What does it all mean?
That's a question for which I don't have an answer. We know that gender dysphoria cases rose 50-fold in a decade. That seems odd.
"Activists" would surely say that many young people had gender dysphoria, but it wasn't socially acceptable so they hid it. Now that it's in the zeitgeist, they are more comfortable sharing.
Still, that doesn't account for such a steep uprising. That's where the other questions come into play. Transitioning someone costs a lot of money; that's certainly a reasonable motive to push young people towards the disorder.
Plus, there's the "social contagion" aspect. A 2024 paper in JAMA Psychiatry showed that "having classmates diagnosed with a mental disorder in the ninth grade of comprehensive school was associated with increased risk of receiving a mental disorder diagnosis later in life."
A 2024 paper in JAMA Psychiatry showed that "having classmates diagnosed with a mental disorder in the ninth grade of comprehensive school was associated with increased risk of receiving a mental disorder diagnosis later in life."
(Stock Photo - Getty Images)
We know that gender dysphoria is a mental health disorder; it's characterized as such by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, published in 2022).
The answer to the problem is not a simple one, but one that is certainly worth further study. Hopefully, we get answers sooner rather than later.
Currently, we have thousands of kids struggling with a rare mental disorder that can potentially lead to irreversible medical intervention.
It's an important and complex issue. Society should treat it as such.