Suicide rates among the transgender community are more than 25 times the rate of
Suicide rates among the transgender community are more than 25 times the rate of the general population. Statistics from a 2010 survey of more than 7,000 transgender individuals conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force reveal that “A staggering 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population …” (emphasis removed).[1] Also revealed in the study is that “Over a quarter of the respondents misused drugs or alcohol specifically to cope with the discrimination they faced due to their gender identity or expression;” and:
Respondents reported over four times the national average of HIV infection, 2.64% in our sample compared to .6% in the general population, with rates for transgender women at 3.76%, and with those who are unemployed (4.67%) or who have engaged in sex work (15.32%) even higher; (emphasis removed).[2]
Suicide rates among the transgender community are more than 25 times the rate of the general population.
The popular consensus is that these statistics are driven by increased mental stress resulting from the social and economic burdens of being visually non-conforming. As such, it is generally believed that the best solution for transgender individuals who have chosen to whole-heartedly embrace their gender identity is to undergo hormonal therapy and, often, sex-reassignment surgery. However popular this consensus may be, it is not firmly established in reliable scientific data. The Guardian reports:
There is no conclusive evidence that sex change operations improve the lives of transsexuals, with many people remaining severely distressed and even suicidal after the operation, according to a medical review conducted exclusively for Guardian Weekend tomorrow.
The review of more than 100 international medical studies of post-operative transsexuals by the University of Birmingham’s aggressive research intelligence facility (Arif) found no robust scientific evidence that gender reassignment surgery is clinically effective.[3]
Follow-up studies indicate that while sex-reassignment patients are overwhelmingly satisfied with the cosmetic effects of the surgery, the surgery results in little change to their mental health and living conditions. In a Wall Street Journal article titled “Transgender Surgery Isn’t the Solution,” Dr. Paul McHugh, a psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins Hospital recalls:
We at Johns Hopkins University—which in the 1960s was the first American medical center to venture into “sex-reassignment surgery”—launched a study in the 1970s comparing the outcomes of transgendered people who had the surgery with the outcomes of those who did not. Most of the surgically treated patients described themselves as “satisfied” by the results, but their subsequent psycho-social adjustments were no better than those who didn’t have the surgery. And so at Hopkins we stopped doing sex-reassignment surgery, since producing a “satisfied” but still troub