Tonight, Assignment Review's other program is broadcast on how health care manages the large increase in young people who suddenly question their gender.

I am the mother of Johanna, who is featured in the program, and I am also one of many parents who are worried about how care today is treating these young people.

I, and the parenting network that I am a part of, do not question that there are people who are really helped by medical gender correction. I myself have a trans man among my friends, who lives well and feels good.

But in recent years we have seen an explosive increase in the number of young people experiencing gender dysphoria. We know that these young people are very ill. Many have suicidal thoughts. There are now long queues for investigation - where previously a few individuals sought care, several hundred are now waiting for an investigation.

To conclude that everyone, or even most, should be offered medical treatment in the form of sex-controlled hormones and or surgical procedures is far from obvious.

What is, of course, obvious is that care should offer these young people care. As a parent and close relative, you want nothing but your child to feel good. We are in despair that they are feeling bad and feel uncomfortable in their bodies.

But we feel that the only care offered to our children is hormones and surgery, regardless of past medical history and mental illness otherwise.

In the information to us as close associates, care tones down risks and side effects, and denies that there is a lot that is actually changing (see www.detransinfo.se).

There is no answer to whether the suicide risk is lower for those who have undergone gender correction.

Anyone who asks critical questions is told that it is transphobic; Anyone who points out that their children have never before shown signs of gender dysphoria is told that the family was obviously inadmissible.

If a young person suffers from eating disorders , self-harm behavior or anxiety, the treatment is to explore, understand and change thoughts and feelings.

But when a child expresses gender dysphoria , the first measure of care is instead to confirm the distance from one's own body. Then follows a rapid investigation of medical interventions.

We have a 1975 law that prohibits sterilization before the age of 25.

The motive was primarily that it is only at the age when one is sufficiently emotionally and sexually mature to be able to decide on sterilization. Recent brain research has by no means concluded that this maturity now occurs earlier.

One of the things that complicates the situation is that many who later change, transcend, have been fully convinced of their gender identity.

They may even have been nagging at their treatment. The problem is that it takes time, often four to five years, for them to rethink. This is also an important reason for slowing down with irreversible treatment.

When gender dysphoria is severe, medical treatment can feel like the only solution - especially if you get no other help exploring your thoughts and feelings. But even with talk support, it can be a long process to overcome their gender dysphoria and feel good in their body.

It is a teenager's right to be confident , but it is the job of the adult world to create a safe system where young people cannot make life-saving decisions that then prove wrong.

Both transgender people and young people with mental illness are entitled to reliable and knowledge-based care. It should be a common interest for all of us that care should be safe, secure and evidence-based.

However, because the development is so rapid , research on young people with gender dysphoria has so far been lacking. In anticipation of research support, care of children and adolescents with gender dysphoria must therefore be characterized by caution.

Our children do not receive the care and care they would need. I, and many parents with me, would like the following for our children:

  • The care provided should be based on knowledge and scientific evidence
  • Call support should be offered during both waiting time and investigation time and as an alternative to medical treatment
  • Preferably change of name and style of clothing, but no irreversible treatments until the earliest after four years for people under 25