Ryan T. Anderson (the author of “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment“) has a much-needed dose of science for the reality-based community over at the Daily Signal this week. It’s a subject which rears its head in both social media and politics these days, providing an example of how far one can fall off the beam if they proclaim a love for and dedication to scientific reality but then abandon it when it suits their political needs. Anderson is dealing with the question of sex reassignment surgery for transgender individuals suffering from gender dysphoria and some of the myths surrounding such practices.

As has previously been indicated in a number of studies which are routinely ignored in the liberal-oriented media, the outcome for many patients who undergo such procedures has been decidedly negative. Further, studies conclude that there simply isn’t enough evidence to support the idea that net positive results are likely at all.

“There is huge uncertainty over whether changing someone’s sex is a good or a bad thing,” said Chris Hyde, the director of [The Aggressive Research Intelligence Facility]. Even if doctors are careful to perform these procedures only on “appropriate patients,” Hyde continued, “there’s still a large number of people who have the surgery but remain traumatized—often to the point of committing suicide.”

Of particular concern are the people these studies “lost track of.” As The Guardian noted, “the results of many gender reassignment studies are unsound because researchers lost track of more than half of the participants.” Indeed, “Dr. Hyde said the high drop-out rate could reflect high levels of dissatisfaction or even suicide among post-operative transsexuals.”

Hyde concluded: “The bottom line is that although it’s clear that some people do well with gender reassignment surgery, the available research does little to reassure about how many patients do badly and, if so, how badly.”

The most alarming statistic is obviously the suicide rate which has been confirmed now in multiple studies. The most complete study done on the subject revealed that 10 to 15 years after the “reassignment” surgery was performed, suicide rates ran as high as nearly 20% above control groups. And in the more optimistic studies which have been published, Anderson points out that peer reviews indicate that the “drop out” rate is far too high to be acceptable for a valid study. That’s a reference to the number of people the researchers “lose track of” after surgery so their current condition cannot be assessed, and many of them may indeed be deceased.

But there’s one aspect of the discussion highlighted in this article which relies less on post-surgery statistics and more on a basic understanding of human biology. It comes from Dr. Paul McHugh, service professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His observations pull no punches.

Transgendered men do not become women, nor do transgendered women become men. All (including Bruce Jenner) become feminized men or masculinized women, counterfeits or impersonators of the sex with which they ‘identify.’ In that lies their problematic future.

When ‘the tumult and shouting dies,’ it proves not easy nor wise to live in a counterfeit sexual garb.

It’s alarming to see how supposed professionals in the medical field can abandon all of their training and sign onto dodgy social justice campaigns to lend them some air of credibility. That seemed to be the case during the brouhaha in South Carolina with Dr. Deanna Adkins, a professor at Duke University School of Medicine. As Anderson reminds us, she went on record saying that, “gender identity is not only the preferred basis for determining sex but the only medically supported determinant of sex.” She claims to place more value on a person’s testimony as to their “gender identity” than chromosomes, hormones, internal reproductive organs, external genitalia, or secondary sex characteristics.

This is how far we have fallen. Previously it might have been assumed that science might save us from such things where rigorous attention to the facts was in order. Not so now. We have a professor at Duke School of Medicine who appears to claim that if an unconscious patient was presented to her who had a penis, testicles, a prostate gland and a full beard, she would be unsure whether or not to run a pregnancy test on them.

This way lies madness. The liberals in most of these social debates always seem to claim to be the ones relying on science. It’s their rallying cry when it comes to climate change. But when you bring up the subject of gender dysphoria it seems that all interest in generations of established medical science disappears. This is a form of communal insanity. And from what I can tell, it’s spreading.