Transgender suicide risk and benefits of gender affirming care
July 10, 2023
Researchers in JAMA reported on four decades of records of about 6.7 million born in Denmark, of whom 3759 (0.06%) were identified as transgender. This population had a 6.6 times higher rate of suicide attempt, and a 2.8 times higher rate of suicide compared to the rest of the cohort. Almost a quarter (23%) of transgender individuals attempted suicide during the 42-year period (compared to 2% of those who were not transgender). Scandinavian countries have comprehensive registries that facilitate this type of research.
Separately, researchers have found that transgender individuals offered gender affirming care have lower risk of depression and suicidality. For instance, this small observational study found 60% less depression and 73% less suicidality among teens treated with puberty blockers or gender affirming hormones. This observational study of almost 12,000 transgender or nonbinary people under age 24 showed a 27% decrease in depression and 26% decrease in suicidality among those who took gender affirming hormones compared to those who wanted but did not receive these hormones. This study of over 20,000 transgender adults showed that only 2.5% who wanted puberty blocking drugs in their childhood received them, and those that did were 70% less likely to have suicidal ideation even after adjusting for family support. All studies are small in size, so further research is clearly needed.
These studies were done before multiple states passed laws restricting gender affirming medical treatment for those under 18. Even though these laws have been delayed by courts in many states, the opportunity for transgender youth to receive gender affirming medical care is likely much lower in states that have passed such laws.
Implications for employers:
- This research confirms that transgender individuals are at higher risk of depression and suicidality and suggests that gender affirming care can lower this risk.
- Gender affirming care can include hormonal therapy and puberty blockers (for adolescents), but also should include appropriate access to counseling for gender dysphoria.
- Many family members find Employee Resource Groups helpful in addressing these issues.
- Travel benefits are increasingly important to allow transgender individuals to access appropriate care if it’s unavailable in their state.
- Employers may find that some employees seek care out-of-state or in some circumstances seek relocation to support their transgender children.
- Here’s a link to my colleague Patricia Toro MD’s article on the WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) guidelines for the care of transgender people.
- Puberty blockers are used for younger teens to avoid them having secondary sexual characteristics that would require surgery in adulthood. Here is an article from KFF Health News reviewing the indications for these medications.
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Youre being severely misled by this data.
- yes, its true that suicide and mortality rates of referenced dutch population over four decades were terrible. thats because this population was using gender affirming meds. its gender meds that cause these negative outcomes, not imaginary gender. we know that when people with gender dysphoria dont take gender meds, their dysphoria goes away and they discontinue their related drs visits (they get better). 85% of kids with gender dysphoria grow out of it with puberty, as long as they dont take gender meds, as per every study ever done on this issues. but we also know that once dysphoric people take blockers and hormones their dysphoria continues and worsens and over the long term they have high rates of early death and suicide. these terrible outcomes are caused by harmful gender meds. The terrible outcomes of this dutch population simply shows how harmful the gender affirmation approach is, as described in this link.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/958259
- i guess you're new to this issue, but the tordoff study is one of the biggest fraud studys of the past couple years. kids who took gender meds did not improve at all. but study claimed they did by comparing the group who took gender meds to 6 kids who didnt. 80% of kids who didnt take meds dropped out of the study (likely due to dramatic improvement without meds). the drop outs were omitted from the study results - dramatically skewing the results. this is fraud. theres no other way to say it. this study is also discussed in these two articles.
https://manhattan.institute/article/why-europe-and-america-are-going-in-opposite-directions-on-youth-transgender-medicine
Researchers Found Puberty Blockers And Hormones Didn’t Improve Trans Kids’ Mental Health At Their Clinic. Then They Published A Study Claiming The Opposite. A critique of Tordoff et al. (2022)
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/researchers-found-puberty-blockers
- your third study of 12000 persons was just another distillation of the activist run trans gender online poll - an anonymous online poll produced by and for activists. the poll dosent contain cookies meaning poll takers arent prevented from taking the poll 100s of times if they wish. this isnt information. its activists messaging. heres an article about that.
https://sexnotgender.com/2015/09/16/u-s-trans-survey-and-methodological-flaws-or-garbage-in-garbage-out/
- your forth study suffers the same flaws as previous. jack turban is a known propagandist and activists. hes liberal arts guy. not a science guy. can you really trust numbers produced by one of the most extreme and biased activists in the nation, jack turban thats based on numbers produced by one of the most extreme activists orgs, the trevor project? the answer is no. hes an activist. their loyalty is to a religious ideology and each of them have been debunked dozens of times.
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/science-vs-cited-seven-studies-to
Every gov systematic review ever done on the entire globe in the history of the world found the same thing: puberty blockers and hormomes dont help pediatric gender dysphoria. they dont help anything significant. and they do more harm than good as kids are rushed into this fraudulant "care" and denied thier right to experience unmedicated puberty.
gender dysphoria is caused by psych issues such as trama, abuse, issues due to kids who are orphans, or just normal dysphoria from being gay or proto gay. these kids need psych care. the last thing they need are to be permanenrly sterilized by these harmful meds.
this "care" is homophonic. most kids who experience child dysphoria grow up to be gay adults. sterilizing gays to address normal psych issues most grow out is homophobic.
every gender biz stat and claim is a lie. i really have nothing to do with this issue. im just a joe schmo anybody from off the street. even i can tell this is a huge fraud.
‘Dr. Hammes’s claim that gender transition reduces suicides is contradicted by every systematic review, including the review published by the Endocrine Society, which states, “We could not draw any conclusions about death by suicide.” There is no reliable evidence to suggest that hormonal transition is an effective suicide-prevention measure.’
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trans-gender-affirming-care-transition-hormone-surgery-evidence-c1961e27