The Swedish government has proposed allowing children as young as 15 to undergo gender reassignment surgery, but an investigation claims there is a lack of evidence that medical procedures prevent suicides.

One of the chief arguments for gender reassignment surgery are suicidal thoughts of those suffering from gender dysphoria. Now, the Swedish government has approved the ability of 15-year-olds to undergo the process even without the consent of their parents or guardians, broadcaster SVT reports.

The number of young children claiming to have gender dysphoria in Sweden has surged in recent years.

SVT found a government document from 2014 used as the basis for the new legislation that claims young people with the condition take their own lives while waiting for surgery. However, the broadcaster could not find an expert who could corroborate the report, which had no citation.

The broadcaster claims that no doctors they spoke to knew of any cases of transgender minors taking their own lives while waiting for gender reassignment. They had said, however, they had experienced more of a problem with those who had had operations and later regretted it.

Swedish Hospital Defends Removing Breasts of 14-Year-Old Diagnosed with ‘Gender Dysphoria’ https://t.co/HqKazbfRzf — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 5, 2019

Professor of psychiatry and Sweden’s leading expert on suicide Danuta Wasserman said that more focus should put on suicide prevention. “Evidence shows very clearly in suicide prevention that the conversation should be conducted for young adolescents who are at puberty, before puberty, and after puberty. There are many evidence-based treatments,” she said.

Aleksa Lundberg, an actor and journalist, said that despite having gender reassignment surgery to become a woman at just 18, she still felt gender dysphoria.

“With everything I know today, I couldn’t have lived as a feminine gay guy? But had it been possible to live in that body or had gender dysphoria eaten me up? I do not know,” Lundberg said.

Earlier this year, the Karolinska University Hospital admitted to having performed breast removal surgery on a girl who was only 14. Per-Anders Rydelius, a senior physician at Karolinska, labelled the operation “quite reasonable”.