What's some really unpopular opinion you have?
What's some really unpopular opinion you have?
Most of the time when people say they have an unpopular opinion, it turns out it's actually pretty popular.
Do you have some that's really unpopular and most likely will get you downvoted?
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Context: I'm a family medicine doctor, so this is based on my personal experience, but also that of colleagues.
I think the surge in people coming out as trans is a fad and (in our population) most are autistic people who don't recognize how they feel and therefore think they are trans. Spoiler alert: once they transition, they still don't know how they feel, but now they are more conflicted and psychiatric comorbidities worsen.
Do you think the current research into gender transition doesn't account for autism as a variable? There is a medical consensus for the current treatment for a reason. For a person to properly transition, they will have undergone years of psychology assessment and so on, seems to me that an autism diagnosis would immediately follow. Is there any evidence of correlation between trans individuals and autism? (There may well be literature on it, I'm genuinely asking).
Also, if that were the case (autism misdiagnosed as gender dysphoria etc etc) you wouldn't have the robust literature with follow up surveys of individuals and how satisfied with their outcome they are. The outcomes of medical treatment of gender dysphoria are quite positive; if like you said, in the end they still don't know how they feel, these outcomes would be vastly different.
This is not so much an unpopular opinion on something which might be ambiguous or up for debate, it's an incorrect opinion which goes against evidence.
There's nothing to support people mixing up autism and gender dysphoria since theyre wildly different things, but there is a correlation between being autistic and being lgbt. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_and_LGBT_identities
I get the feeling you're personally offended by this, and if so, I'll apologize as it was never my intention.
The above statement is just an observation myself and colleagues I've shared my concerns with did. It might be a coincidence, but nearly all our transitioned patients had a prior diagnosis for autism, and without exception all had psychiatric comorbidities.
This also seems to be in line with the (scarce) literature on the subject. (I.e. 1 2)
I hope I'm wrong and my patients are just exceptions, and that we won't look back at these years with regret.
I'm not personally offended, don't worry. I'm not part of the LGBT community myself, back when I was studying I looked into the literature around transition and the perceived hot controversy on the issue. You've touched on an important issue, which is that a large percentage of people who will end up transitioning have a lot of stressors which will end up severely impacting their mental health, not just the innate stress from gender dysphoria, but the lack of support from friends and family, ostracization, etc.
This helps explain the psychiatric comorbidities, like depressive and anxiety disorders.
It seems to me that the current medical pathway for trans patients is robust, and should weed out the odd patient with transient dysphoria or patients which have serious psychiatric issues that mistakenly led them down this path.
For those that go down the path, regret rates seem to always be between 1 and 2 per cent. At this point, we can accept these rates as statistically accurate, when we have data from thousands of individuals.
Your experience speaks to something more should voice.
I remember watching speedruns on YouTube back in the day. Very tight nit Community based on playing the same game over and over again as fast as possible. While watching the streams, you could tell the community had a higher than average autistic population.
As time went on more and more of them became Trans. It never made sense to me how an already niche community would then have such a high population of Trans members unless something else was going on. People seeking identity and not knowing better/ wanting to latch onto things they see online or around them.
This is not to discount Trans people or their struggles of course, too often I feel the vocal minority ruins it for the ones just trying to live their lives. 🤷♂️
I also believe it
doespossibly can add a lot of harm to children. I can only explain my own anecdotal example. When I was young, I was abused and therefore developed sexuality early on. There was a time of a few years when I couldn't feel anything because of the constant punishment and where I was sexually exploring my body. Even back then there was a lot of media and the thought of being a women was exciting (my abuse person was a women). If back then there had been the option to go to a doctor and transition, I had probably done it as to escape the abuse. There wasn't, but if you then add media, people and encouraging parents who tell you "you must be trans", this can very easily manipulate a kid, even young adult to do the step. Therefore I personally believe this whole topic isn't researched enough and there are issues a lot of people fear to talk about.Concluding I'm happy that I didn't have the option to transition as I'm 100% a man, but sexual thoughts, better medical options and a supportive environment, would've easily pushed me to change my body. With the growing depression I developed since 5 years old (thankfully largely recovered sind 3 years), this might have pushed me over the edge, on days where I was suicidal and already had the bag of belongings in my hands, to jump of the next bridge.
Edit: I want to add that I'm no expert and therefore don't see myself as the culprit of knowledge. If doctors decide otherwise that's the opinion I go by. I'm also not American, so I can freely talk about this, without being caught up in the heated debate of your politics. I'm not advocating to be against transsexual or transgender. I'm pro LGBTQ but wanted to add my thoughts, despite people willing to silence me.
I changed the the text a bit up to make it sound less aggressive, as I totally understand that for some children the transition is necessary as to help them develop a healthy relationship with themselves and their body.
I don't think I'm a rare case. Children get abused every day. We know by now that abuse leads to early sexualization and that children are easily manipulated by their parents and environment. To ignore that is stupid. People are too quickly in their judgment, to protect themselves from possible harm, this collides with the willingly bias of the every day person and is unscientific.
"Even back then there was a lot of media and the thought of being a women was exciting"
I'm sorry for your difficult upbringing, but this does not meet the criteria of gender dysphoria AT ALL. No serious physician would allow you as a teenager or adult to transition based on this.
Also, we know that over sexualized behaviour is unfortunately common in children who suffered abuse. But to conflate this with LBGT or specifically trans issues is heinous, one thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other.
Serious question because I've never heard the term: what is a family medicine doctor?
It's the closest translation of the Dutch "huisarts" that's available.
"A general practitioner, commonly known as a family doctor or primary care physician, is a medical professional who focuses on providing general healthcare to patients. They often serve as the initial point of contact for individuals with medical concerns. General practitioners treat a wide range of health issues, offer preventive care, make diagnoses, and prescribe medications. When necessary, they refer patients to specialists for more specialized care. In essence, a general practitioner is a key figure in healthcare, playing a crucial role in managing individuals' health."
Ah yes, the 'Hausarzt' in German :D thanks for clearing that up!
Queer person here. I have a number of friends who are trans, some that are gender neutral, and a number of different sexual orientations.
The vibe I'm getting is not necessarily that it's trendy to be trans, but a lot of people realizing that they don't have to all be all in one camp or the other (more gender neutral). Eg, some people realizing that they can wear whatever they like without judgment. A lot of people just being more relaxed and not necessarily all blue or all pink, haha. And sure, I'm sure things will settle over the decades, but in a similar vein to the civil rights movement, women's suffrage, the gay rights movement, etc. It'll fall out of favor with the internet's eye of Sauron, and something else will be the new baby.
In other words, we aren't seeing an uptick in more queer people. What we are seeing is people who have been guarded for awhile now feeling okay to be a bit more relaxed.
And for what it's worth, a lot of people- many of my friends- aren't interested in surgical transitions. Most just wanna live their lives with a couple of social changes and are happier than they've ever been. It's kinda sweet to see someone who has always spoken in a monotone suddenly become cheerful and way brighter :)