Hyperbolic claims are made by gender activists concerning the risks of suicide to young people identifying as transgender. The truth is almost a complete reversal of what the gender activists claim. Unfortunately, we are familiar with cases where transition has culminated in the young person taking their life. It is reasonable to surmise that the outcome could have been different had they received appropriate therapy instead of opposite sex imitation medicine.
There are over 45 studies reporting a significantly increased risk of attempts amongst individuals classed as having gender dysphoria. All these studies were convenience surveys (non-representative samples) with highly biased recruitment and survey questions. Their findings should not determine policy but are routinely used to do so.
There was a similar number of studies comparing suicide attempt rates between gender dysphoric people and other cohorts e.g. gay, lesbian, bullied youth, common mental disorders, that found no statistical difference in outcomes.
Finally, there are no good quality long term outcome studies for gender dysphoria. The two published recently indicated an increased risk for serious suicide attempts for those diagnosed with gender dysphoria and treated with hormones (Branstrom 2019), and an increased risk for completed suicide compared to the general population for those undertaking hormones (Weipjes 2020). The latter was particularly noteworthy as it showed that natal females on testosterone had an increased suicide rate compared with natal males on oestrogen. This is an inversion of the trend seen in broader society.
References
Trends in suicide death risk in transgender people: results from the Amsterdam Cohort of Gender Dysphoria study (1972–2017) Weipjes et al. 2020
