I think this is really important, and I'm worried it's never going to filter into the mainstream: Finland is producing studies that their researchers claim cast doubt on gender affirming care for youth, but they hide the ways their idiosyncratic approach itself could be to blame.

April 09, 2026 - 11:31 UTC

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See, I think what @devezer.bsky.social ‘s great science mind leads to is you could just do more studies, then see how studies’ results differ, then use that to examine how the external conditions of those studied and nature of studies themselves in each case can reveal best approaches…
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If people actually wanted to do science to make world better, not just hate
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My undergrad experiment design and research methodology prof, a reactionary asshole by most measures, would be offended by how fucking amateur and sloppy this Finnish so called "study" is. He had so much bile and hate in him but most of all he hated dogshit research and experimental methodology
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We have a small political party here in Norway, who is die hard Trumpers and of cause they use this finnish publication as a reason to ban Gender affirming care here. thank god they are a really small party.
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I read a review of the paper, maybe by @erininthemorning.com saying it used attendance at a psychiatric appointment as a measure that gender affirming care didn’t work, whilst at the same time, not declaring that psychiatric assessment was baked in to Finland’s gender services. This is not science 🤬
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So, they actually didn't include gender clinic visits in their count of psychiatric contacts. But they also didn't flag that having multiple psychiatric screenings a year will inevitably result in more stuff being caught, which will raise the number of psychiatric contacts.
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Imagine two trans kids, 12 years old. One is in Finland, one in the US.

Every few month the Finnish child goes to the clinic where they're separated from their parents and barraged with uncomfortable questions.

The American child sees a therapist who meets them where they are and doesn't judge.
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In seperate sessions, the Finnish child's parents are berated and made to feel like they're to blame for having a trans kid.

The American child's parents are spoken with and given information about trans children and a final say in any treatments their child might receive.
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Notably this is directly Kaltiala, who runs *one* of the youth clinics. The other one operates slightly differently.

Either way, Kaltiala needs to be brought up on charges for breach of her civil servant obligations.
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But you're also not presenting a fully accurate picture of the reality for young trans people.
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clear mentality of GC is: "we will purposely make your life miserable/humiliating to point of torture or you go back into the closet (a form of torture) all while *requiring MH checks you'll later get blamed for and all done with stated INTENT to REDUCE the trans pop..term for this cultural genocide
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They believe in this "70-80% desistance" trope. Presumably it's a short step from that to believing that if you're not driving away 80%of applicants you're being too lax.

Of course, they also believe that being trans is a worst case outcome.
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Well after the first stories about her had broken out in Kehrääjä in 2024, Kaltiala had a puff piece on big newspaper about her "pioneering" work.

So I'm afraid your worry is probably going to be true.
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Went through the Finnish trans healthcare pipeline, and it took me almost 4 years to get my diagnosis. The process was unintuitive and hostile by design, and there was a point where I went more than a year without an appointment. This was after learning I'd started DIY.
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I have heard of an unofficial practice called "round table", where a young patient is assessed by their care team. The purpose of Round Table is to not produce diagnostic decisions, it is to come up with a way to delay access to care for patients that otherwise fulfill diagnostic criteria.
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Hi,

Can go into vivid detail about how much Finnish Authorities hate trans people.
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www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/transgender-youth-speak-about-finland-transpoli
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This is what I tell people who think ‘affirmative care’ is ‘roll over and give them anything’. It used to be adversarial everywhere. You had to prove you were really trans to people who weren’t! So trivial stuff like wearing jeans instead of a dress mattered.
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I had an assessment last year where the report starts “Mara has a feminine presentation with long hair and pierced ears”. Although I did get away with answering “what clothes did you wear as a child” with “the ones my mum bought me”.
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remind me to tell 99% of girls in my class they're not really girls because dresses aren't really in style atm
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