[tosh]

Originally Posted by massflavour

tl;dr: they put two entirely contradictory pieces of literature next to each other and deliberately misrepresented one to re-affirm the other one.

As Fojar said: they're not contradictory. Let's just use numerical examples to illustrate why they don't contradict each other.

Let's assume for a second that pre-op trans people have a mortality rate of 20% (pulling this number out of my ass). Let's also assume the US population as a whole has a mortality rate of 5%. If post-op trans people have a mortality rate of 13%, then it shows an improvement compared to the pre-op group but it's still a higher mortality rate than the US population as a whole.

Also, a small bit in the second statement you quoted illustrates this.

Even though surgery and hormonal therapy alleviates gender dysphoria, it is apparently not sufficient to remedy the high rates of morbidity and mortality found among transsexual persons. Improved care for the transsexual group after the sex reassignment should therefore be considered.

So what this is saying is that reassignment surgery greatly reduces the gender dysphoria that a person feels. Therefore, the reassignment surgery did what it was meant to. However, being post-op does not help with some other areas in their life that their transition has affected.

Examples of some things that can affect someone even after reassignment surgery include, but are not limited to, breaking up with a spouse/significant other as a result of being trans, family not approving of the transition, losing a job, etc. Hence the study says that 'improved care...should therefore be considered'. Pretty much 'improved care' is synonymous with counseling to help trans people handle issues that they may not have control over.