Access to gender-affirming hormone therapy in adolescence is associated with better mental health outcomes for transgender adults, according to a new study, reports NBC News.
The research, published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One, was based on data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality, which surveyed more than 27,000 trans people across the country. It compared the psychological distress and suicidal thoughts experienced by 12,738 trans adults who had access to gender-affirming hormones during early adolescence, late adolescence or adulthood with 8,860 trans adults who desired hormones but never had access to them.
Trans people who had access to gender-affirming hormones between the ages of 14 and 17 saw their odds of negative mental health outcomes decrease significantly. Access to gender-affirming hormones during this period was associated with a third of the odds of severe psychological distress in the past month and half the odds or less of suicidal ideation in the past year when compared to trans people who wanted hormones but never accessed them, according to study co-author Dana King, data programmer and analyst for The Fenway Institute at Fenway Health, a Boston-based LGBTQ health care and research organization.
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