? I don't know if you read a very different study than I did but that's not what this seems to say.

The purpose of this study was to track anxiety & mood disorder prevalence among trans people, by looking at rates of treatment/medication, and to see if hormone treatment or surgery had an effect on the rates of mental health treatment trans people seek out.

They found that most people getting hormone therapy for a long time seek out mental health support at about the same rate as those who have just started. For surgeries, they found that, the more time that passes since that surgery, the less mental health support trans people seek out. That indicates that gender affirming surgery is helpful and has a positive effect on trans people's mental health.

You are correct that trans people experience mental health struggles at a higher rate than others, but you've got it backwards - once you support the gender issues, the mental health stuff gets easier.

DOI that comes up for your link: https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19010080