# Why are US prisoners not allowed sex changes or methadone?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-us-prisoners-not-allowed-sex-changes-or-methadone/646398>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 7, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-us-prisoners-not-allowed-sex-changes-or-methadone/646398 "2013-01-07T21:23:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-us-prisoners-not-allowed-sex-changes-or-methadone/646398/41 "2013-01-08T19:36:51Z")

</div>

Re suicide rates pre and post transition

From this study (warning PDF) [End Trans Discrimination: Home](http://endtransdiscrimination.org/PDFs/NTDS_Report.pdf) we see that 41% of transsexuals had attempted suicide.  
Whereas this study found

[QUOTE= “Transsexual Surgery: Its Pros and Cons” By Anne Lawrence, M.D.]  
“Post-reassignment, Pfafflin and Junge found reports of only 16 possible suicide deaths among over 2000 cases: 14 in MFs, one in an FM, and one with gender not specified. Five of the 16 may have been accidental medication or drug overdoses rather than genuine suicides. In the remaining 11 cases, suicide was usually not thought to be related to gender problems per se. These results suggest that post- transition, suicidal tendencies probably get no worse, and may actually improve.” -  
[/QUOTE]

Last time I checked, 16 (possibly 11) is less than 41% of 2000.

Re Other Treatments  
Even Unca Cecil (who is sadly not in my camp when it comes to transsexuals) says  
[QUOTE=Our Master]  
Regardless, few in the field believe transsexual impulses can be eradicated or cured. The choices are some combination of hormones and surgery, or else you just deal.  
[/QUOTE]

So there are no alternative treatments.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![powhatan\_bolling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@powhatan\_bolling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/powhatan_bolling)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-us-prisoners-not-allowed-sex-changes-or-methadone/646398/42 "2013-01-12T11:31:26Z")

</div>

Because sanity prevailed.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![akennett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee59a6/32.png) [@akennett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akennett)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-us-prisoners-not-allowed-sex-changes-or-methadone/646398/43 "2013-01-12T16:08:27Z")

</div>

> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> Last time I checked, 16 (possibly 11) is less than 41% of 2000.

Apples and oranges with those stats. The 41% you mentioned was suicide attempts. The 16/2000 is deaths attributed to suicide. Those are two entirely different statistics.

Just pointing that out, not commenting on the effectiveness of treatments.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2013, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-us-prisoners-not-allowed-sex-changes-or-methadone/646398/44 "2013-01-13T00:15:04Z")

</div>

> [@akennett](#):
>
> Apples and oranges with those stats. The 41% you mentioned was suicide attempts. The 16/2000 is deaths attributed to suicide. Those are two entirely different statistics.
> 
> Just pointing that out, not commenting on the effectiveness of treatments.

:smack: You’re right. I shall have to resume the search for cites.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-us-prisoners-not-allowed-sex-changes-or-methadone/646398.md?page=2)