Too many parents have faced the dilemma of how to help a child struggling with gender confusion. They’re often told anything short of affirming a new gender identity risks psychological harm—even suicide.

New, comprehensive research from Finland contradicts that claim. It finds that mental illness isn’t caused by resisting transition. Rather, children who believe they were ‘born in the wrong body” are more likely to have underlying mental health issues.

What’s more, those struggles don’t ease after efforts to “transition”: in fact, they intensify. Rates of mental illness rose from around 10 to 60 percent in boys seeking to become girls, and from roughly 20 to 55 percent among girls transitioning to boys.

We’re not helping vulnerable children by denying reality. The transgender experiment has come at a steep cost, and it needs to end. Now.