Did God Really Create Us Male and Female?
A peer-reviewed study published in a
leading scientific journal finds transgender
transitioning causes far more harm than benefit
by Jerry Bergman, PhD
Every society for the last 6,000 years has separated male and female roles and responsibilities within its structure. Male and female had very different places in life and society, and their families expected them to conform to these roles.[1] The specifics varied, but generally men focused on hunting, farming, and, in general, working outdoors at hard-labor tasks such as construction and ‘bringing home the bacon’. Women’s roles included bearing and raising the children and sewing, making clothes, and housekeeping tasks that could be carried out in the home.
Marriage between a man and a woman was also the norm in most every society in history. However, the modern Western stress on women fulfilling traditional male roles, men being permitted to marry other men, and women to marry other women, has greatly blunted sexual roles. The next step in this progression has been not only for women to attempt to be more like men, including in their career goals, but to want to be men.
The Wrong Body?
One of the latest fads is the belief that humans can be born in the wrong body. “Gender” males can be born into a female body and “gender” females can be born in a male body. The solution to this imagined inconsistency is what is now called gender-affirming care, including surgery. This surgery is done to make the person’s anatomy closer to their mentally constructed gender.
For females attempting the transition to males, it involves a double mastectomy (breast removal). For males attempting to transition to females, it includes penectomy (penis removal) and orchiectomy (testicle removal).
Gender-affirming surgery is now done in 60 different clinics and hospitals along with countless therapists and doctors in private practice seeing young patients with gender-identity concerns.[2] It is now covered by Medicare and various different insurance companies.
Doing a computer search on gender-care clinics produces sales ads like the following from Cleveland Clinic, one of the most respected hospitals in America. Under the heading ‘Gender Affirmation (Confirmation)’ or ‘Sex Reassignment Surgery’, the clinic claimed
Gender affirmation surgery refers to procedures that help people transition to their self-identified gender. People may have surgery so that their physical body matches their gender identity. People who choose gender affirmation surgery do so because they experience gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is the distress that occurs when your sex assigned at birth does not match your gender identity. Gender-affirming options may include facial surgery, top surgery or bottom surgery. Most people who choose gender affirmation surgeries report improved mental health and quality of life.[3]
Radical Surgery
The hospital claims that gender-affirming surgery gives transgendered people a body that aligns with their gender. It involves surgery procedures on the face, chest, and/or genitals, and Cleveland Clinic claims that around 1 in 4 transgendered and nonbinary people choose gender-affirmation surgery. Common transgender surgery options include:
- Facial reconstructive surgery to make facial features more masculine or feminine.
- Chest or “Top” surgery to remove breast tissue for a more masculine appearance or enhance breast size and shape for a more feminine appearance.
- Genital or “Bottom” surgery to transform and reconstruct the genitalia.
- Cheekbones: Many transgender women have injections to enhance their cheekbones.
- Chin: You may opt to soften or more prominently define your chin’s angles.
A surgeon will shave down your jawbone or use fillers to enhance your jaw, or use rhinoplasty surgery to reshape the nose.
- For a transgendered woman (assigned male at birth or AMAB), other surgeries may include:
- Adam’s apple reduction, placement of breast implants (breast augmentation), removal of the penis and scrotum (penectomy and orchiectomy), construction of a vagina and labia (feminizing genitoplasty).
Transgendered men (assigned female at birth), may have surgeries that involve: Breast reduction or mastectomy, removal of the ovaries and uterus (oophorectomy and hysterectomy), construction of a penis and scrotum (metoidioplasty, phalloplasty and scrotoplasty). These are all superficial cosmetic surgeries that do not change the sex of the person. They only look different externally. Other parts of the treatment involve:
- Hormone therapy to increase masculine or feminine characteristics, such as the amount of body hair or vocal tone.
- Puberty blockers to prevent going through puberty.
- Voice therapy to adjust the voice or tone, or help with communication skills, such as introducing yourself with your preferred pronouns.
Are People Happier After Transgender Surgery?
Is it really true as the Cleveland Clinic claims, that “Most people who choose gender affirmation surgeries report improved mental health and quality of life”? The Cleveland Clinic claims that “transgender individuals who choose gender-affirming surgery experience long-term mental health benefits. In one study, the Clinic claimed that a “person’s odds of needing mental health treatment declined by 8% each year after the gender-affirming procedure.”[4]
To determine if this is true, it is helpful to examine one of the most carefully designed, recently published research studies on this issue. The study involved 1,655 adolescents and young adults who reported that their gender dysphoria began when they were between ages 11 and 21 years old.[5] Participants of the study completed the surveys from December 1, 2017, through October 22, 2021, a total of 46 months. In total, 1,774 responses were received. The majority of survey respondents (N = 1,496; 84.3%) were mothers reporting on their own children. Fathers (N = 223) comprised only 12.6% of the respondents. Persons with another relationship to the gender dysphoric youth, including step-parent, grandparent, or adoptive parent (N = 55; 3.1%), were also included.
Age at onset of gender dysphoria comparing males and females. From the Diaz and Bailey study 2023. For females it occurs much earlier.
Mostly Girls in the Transitioning Population
The youths transitioning were disproportionately (75%) females. Males had later onset (by 1.9 years) of gender dysphoria than females, and they were also less likely to have taken steps toward gender transition (65.7% for females versus 28.6% for males). One important finding was that parents of transgendered children reported that they had often felt pressured by clinicians to affirm their child’s new gender and support their child’s transition. According to the parents, the children’s mental health deteriorated considerably after social transition.[6]
Parent reports of change in functioning after social transition. 1=much worse; 2=somewhat worse; 3=no change; 4=somewhat better; 5=much better. This data clearly shows the Cleveland Clinic claim is misleading. The vast majority, according to the parents, were worse and very few were better. One can see why the study was later retracted. The results do not support the narrative of the transgender movement.
The specific question asked of the parents was “whether they had felt pressure from a ‘gender clinic or specialist’ to transition their child socially or medically”. Of the 390 parents who answered this question, 51.8% (N = 202) answered “yes”[7] The study reported that “Results of our study are generally consistent with other recent research about the current surge of gender dysphoria among youth with onset during adolescence or young adulthood. Natal females were affected more often than natal males. Pre-existing mental health issues were common.”[8] The researchers concluded that one major “statistically robust finding was both disturbing and seemingly important. Youths with a history of mental health issues were especially likely to have taken steps to socially and medically transition.”[9]
Summary
The transitioning movement is one major result of the rejection of the Genesis teaching that God created males and females for different, but complementary, roles in life. Genesis teaches that God created humanity male and female in His image and likeness. Humans are divinely separated into male and female just as light and dark, day and night, morning and evening, heaven and earth, water and dry land are separated. Separation of mankind into two sexes—male and female—provides that each sex uniquely bears God’s image and are at the same time wholly complementary.
Obviously, occupational roles have some overlap but men still aggregate toward work that requires more brawn, such as welding or diesel engine repair, and women aggregate toward work that requires more nurturing, such as teaching, nursing and health care in general. Those suffering from gender dysphoria need a psychiatrist, not a surgeon.
The acceptance of evolution and consequent rejection of the creation of males and females has numerous negative consequences, and this transsexual fad is only one example. As more research is completed, I expect the findings of this study will be reinforced. Already the long-term effects of the powerful drugs given as part of the “treatment’ have been found to have very adverse health effects. In the end, this fad will surely have tragic consequences.
References
[1] Korabik, Karen, et al. 2017. The Work-Family Interface in Global Context. New York, NY: Routledge.
[2] Bazelon, Emily. 2023. “The Battle Over Gender Therapy.” New York Times; Ennis, Dawn. 2016. “More U.S. Hospitals Offering Gender-Affirming Surgeries,” NBS News, October 31.
There are new choices for transgendered Americans, as more hospitals are now offering gender-affirming surgeries. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/more-u-s-hospitals-offer-gender-affirming-surgeries-n674436.
[3] https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21526-gender-affirmation-confirmation-or-sex-reassignment-surgery.
[4] Diaz, Suzanna, and J. Michael Bailey. 2023. Rapid onset gender dysphoria: Parent reports on 1655 possible cases. Archives of Sexual Behavior 52:1031–1043.
[5] Diaz and Bailey, 2023, p. 1034.
[6] Diaz and Bailey, 2023, p. 1040.
[7] Diaz and Bailey, 2023, p. 1039-1040.
[8] Diaz and Bailey, 2023, p. 1040 p. 1039.
[9] Diaz and Bailey, 2023, p. 1041.
Dr. Jerry Bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology for over 40 years at several colleges and universities including Bowling Green State University, Medical College of Ohio where he was a research associate in experimental pathology, and The University of Toledo. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Wayne State University in Detroit, the University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University. He has over 1,300 publications in 12 languages and 40 books and monographs. His books and textbooks that include chapters that he authored are in over 1,800 college libraries in 27 countries. So far over 80,000 copies of the 60 books and monographs that he has authored or co-authored are in print. For more articles by Dr Bergman, see his Author Profile.