Hormone Therapy, Suicidal Risk, and Transgender Youth in the United States

Abstract

This study uses the 2015 US Transgender Survey to test how initiation of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) affects the risk of attempting suicide among transgender individuals. We constructed a retrospective panel and employed a stacked event study design to demonstrate that HRT is associated with a substantially lower risk of suicide attempt. The average treatment effect on the treated is a decrease of 5.7 percentage points in the risk of ever attempting suicide if HRT is started between the ages of 14 and 17, which amounts to a 14.4 percent reduction in the risk of attempting suicide relative to the pretreatment mean.

Mental Health of Transgender Youth Following Gender Identity Milestones by Level of Family Support

“…Medical procedures that reduce gender dysphoria and achieve gender congruence, as well as interventions that reduce stigma and associated gender minority stress, are associated with improvements in mental health among gender minority adults. [5][6][7][8][9][10] Antitransgender legislation is associated with worsening mental health outcomes among gender minority individuals, 11 which is of particular note given the recent rise in antitransgender legislation, 12 including bills that establish criminal IMPORTANCE Transgender youth are at an elevated risk for adverse mental health outcomes compared with their cisgender peers. Identifying opportunities for intervention is a priority.…”