Gender-affirming hormones improve mental health in trans young people. Source: Ted Eytan, scimex
A US study has found that gender-affirming hormones are linked to improved mental health and psychosocial functioning in trans and nonbinary young people.
The study, from the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that when teenagers’ outer appearance matched up with their gender identity, they felt significantly happier and experienced less anxiety and depression.
Diane Chen, Ph.D., from the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and fellow researchers, studied the psychosocial functioning of 315 US trans and nonbinary youth (aged 12-20 years) for two years after the initiation of gender-affirming hormones.
They found that, throughout these two years, appearance congruence and overall life satisfaction increased while depression and anxiety decreased.
Other leading hospitals in the US have conducted very similar research with the same results and have found that the positive effects of the gender-affirming hormones continued over time.
“We are now following this cohort to see whether gains in functioning are sustained over a longer follow-up period, and — given substantial variability in outcomes even after controlling for a number of factors — we hope to discover additional predictors of change to identify youth for whom GAH alone is not adequate to address mental health challenges,” the researchers wrote.
While these results come as no surprise, the study is an important scientific argument against the political and social attacks trans and nonbinary young people continue to face.
According to an analysis by American media organisation NPR, 86% of the 300 plus bills targeting trans and nonbinary people in the US were focused heavily on trans youth.
These proposed new laws aimed to restrict trans young peoples’ access to sports, bathrooms that align with their gender, and gender-affirming hormones, putting even more emotional distress on trans and nonbinary young people and their families.
This new study shows that improving healthcare for trans and nonbinary youth and allowing access to gender-affirming hormones could significantly alleviate this stress and improve overall wellbeing.
