Cross-sex hormones, including testosterone, are part of gender-affirming care, which is banned in half of the states.
Rory Doyle, The Washington Post //Getty Images
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Rory Doyle, The Washington Post //Getty Images
How many transgender teens are receiving gender reassignment-related medical care in the United States? According to peer review Research letter published Monday in JAMA Pediatricsthe answer is very few.
It’s an important data point as Republicans in Congress and across the country continue to focus on transgender youth in everything from sports to bathrooms to doctor’s offices. With a legislative push in recent years, half of U.S. states have enacted bans on gender-affirming care. Some of these laws have been blocked in court, and one such case was just argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in December.
The care in question includes puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone therapy (medications that help transgender teens develop characteristics consistent with their gender identity). The use of these treatments is supported by major medical groups in the United States. American Academy of Pediatrics.
“It’s important to put numbers to the debate that’s happening,” he says. landon hughesa postdoctoral fellow at Harvard School of Public Health. “There were no peer-reviewed studies that looked at the rates of hormone use and puberty blocker use among U.S. youth, so we wanted to fill that void.”
Hughes and colleagues from Harvard University and the de facto LGBTQ medical company Volks Health used a data set of private insurance claims from 2018 to 2022 that included more than 5 million young people.
“The total number of young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria was less than 18,000,” Hughes explains. “There were less than 1,000 of those people.” [youth] Fewer than 2,000 used puberty blockers and fewer than 2,000 used hormones. ”
In other words, the study found that less than 0.1% of teens with private insurance in the United States are transgender and are receiving gender-related medications.
a Recent Mental Health Surveys by CDC We found that a much higher percentage of high school students, 3%, identify as transgender. Note that not all transgender people seek medical diagnosis or treatment related to their identity. lindsay dawsonDirector of LGBTQ Health Policy at research institute KFF. “More common is changing the way you do your hair or dress, or using a different name,” she said, noting that: KFF research.
Dawson, who was not involved in the study, said the study was notable for its large sample size. “This reflects previous research that found gender-affirming medical treatments, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, to be relatively rare among all transgender and non-binary people; This is especially true among adolescents,” she says.
Hughes said the study brought clear political attention to this group. In the recent election, Republicans spent more than $222 million on anti-LGBTQ ads, according to an AdImpact report shared with NPR.
“A very small number of people have eaten up all the oxygen in our political discourse over the past few months,” Hughes observes.
The American Principles Project, a conservative political advocacy group that has long opposed transgender policies, said it is likely to push for a ban on gender-affirming care for minors under the Trump administration. said John Schweppe, policy director. he told NPR in November..
“We’ve tested that in the polls, and we’re confident that the American people agree,” Schweppe said.
