Does Transition Reduce The Risk Of Suicide For Trans People?

Once doctors and the person in question are certain, beyond reasonable doubt, that a person is transgender, there are two treatment options. One involves trying to change the person — to make them not be transgender anymore. This option is widely discredited, is about as effective as it sounds, and should be avoided with the same scrupulousness as the “ex-gay” movement.

The other treatment option is usually medical transition.

Medical transition for a transgender person involves the use of hormone therapy to establish an endocrine environment appropriate to the target gender. Trans women will take a drug, usually spirolactone, to reduce the efficacy of the testosterone their testes are still producing. Other than that, hormone therapy for trans women is basically the pill; hormone therapy for trans men is basically steroids. That’s not intended to be belittling: testosterone is an anabolic steroid, and the birth control pill is a form of hormone treatment. Both of these hormones are naturally produced in the bodies of biological men and women.

If you’re a trans teen reading this and you’re thinking of self-medicating, be aware that the majority of adult trans people would warn you against this option, which can be dangerous or even fatal. By comparison, properly supervised medical transition for trans people can be comparatively safe and effective. 

One powerful argument in favor of transition for trans people is the risk of suicide among transgender people. This is enormously high. Among trans people who can be easily “read” or “clocked” but haven’t transitioned, 42 percent will attempt suicide. Among trans people who suffer violence or mockery at school — and that’s most trans people of school age — 78 percent will attempt suicide. (Source: The Williams Institute/AFSP.) That’s more than three quarters. An Ottowa study found that 11 percent of transgender people in the Ottowa area attempted suicide in the single year of the study. (Source: Globe and Mail.)

Suicide attempts in the trans population occur at a rate almost 20 times the level for the whole population. Deaths by suicide occur at a rate 61 times the general population. (Sources: Globe and Mail, SpeakingofSuicide.com.) 

With a problem that serious, it’s no wonder that transition is held up as a solution and referred to by trans writers as a lifesaver.

But does it live up to its reputation?

Ideally, to answer that question, we’d have a wealth of medical data. But unfortunately, that’s not the case. For one thing, getting hold of a properly designed study on the effects of transition isn’t easy because you can’t construct a double-blind controlled trial of transition the same way you can’t construct one for parachutes. It’s ethically impossible.

READ Myths About Transgender Identities

What evidence we do have appears ambivalent at first glance and appears to depend heavily on where the statement is coming from. Trans activists tend to say transition is effective, sharply reduces suicide risks, and saves lives. Anti-trans voices from the radical feminist and conservative camps will say that transition isn’t effective, causes more problems that it solves, and so on. Are these two camps arguing because there’s no real evidence?

Not really. In terms of the efficacy of transition in reducing depression, anxiety, and the risk of suicide among trans people, the conservatives are basically distorting the evidence for ideological reasons. It shouldn’t be any surprise to learn that trans people who transition still have higher anxiety and depression rates — and greater risk of suicide — than the general population. 

What we do see across the board is that transition is associated with reduced feelings of anxiety and depression, less suicidal ideation and better mental and physical health.