Transgender Suicide and Gender Affirming Healthcare


Transgender Pride Flag

            According to the National Library of Medicine, 82% of transgender individuals have considered suicide and 40% have attempted it in 2022. As new bills and bans on transgender people getting the medical attention they deserve get proposed, this rate will only skyrocket. Legislation banning access to gender affirming healthcare is cruel and unfair because the suicide rate of transgender adults is already disproportionately high.

            For context, sex and gender are two different things. Sex refers to the biological sexual dimorphism between male and female members of the same species. Gender, however, is an exclusively human experience. The World Health Organization defines gender identity as “a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond to the person’s physiology or designated sex at birth.” Therefore, “transgender” is an umbrella term for any person whose gender identity does not align with their biological sex. This includes those who identify as nonbinary and people born intersex. Gender affirming healthcare as defined by CNN Health is "medically necessary, evidence-based care that uses a multidisciplinary approach to help a person transition from their assigned gender – the one the person was designated at birth – to their affirmed gender – the gender by which one wants to be known." It is determined on a case-by-case basis whether a person genuinely needs gender affirming care or not, it is not taken lightly and is not handed out to every person that asks for it. 

The abnormally high suicide rate of transgender individuals is directly due to the lack of acceptance they feel from their communities. Someone considering suicide is doing so because they feel alone, abandoned, and forgotten. In this case, transgender people feel abandoned by their government. Systemic stigmatization is when a government intentionally or unintentionally limits opportunities for a stigmatized group, such as transgender people. An article by George Cunningham says that laws restricting or banning access to gender affirming healthcare “send a consistent message that the stigmatized group is different, the other, and less than. Over time, these repeated messages can result in a form of minority stress, whereby distal or external stressors negatively impact the lives of transgender people. These stressors ultimately manifest in health disparities, whereby transgender individuals are at higher risk for adverse physical and psychological health, relative to their cisgender counterparts.” Gender affirming healthcare is medically necessary, and it is unjust to deny someone the care they need. Doing so puts a lot of stress on a person, which may eventually drive them to self-harm or suicide.

Access to the proper healthcare is essential in reducing the suicide rate of transgender people. Feeling accepted and valued by their communities and their government will reduce the stress that leads to suicidal ideation, and putting laws in place to protect people seeking gender affirming care is necessary to eradicate discrimination transgender people face in the healthcare system.

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