Transgender and gender-diverse (“trans”) people have worse mental health compared to the general population. As a result, they’re more likely to use mental health services, such as psychologists and counsellors, and treatments such as antidepressants and anxiety medication.

While there are many contributing factors, including stigma, we know gender dysphoria can play a major role. Gender dysphoria refers to the distress or discomfort some trans people feel about their gender, body, or how others perceive their gender.

Gender-affirming medical care – which may involve hormone therapy or surgery – helps align trans people’s bodies with their gender identity. And evidence shows it can drastically improve trans people’s mental health.

But until now, we haven’t had research that tracks whether this means they actually use mental health services and scripts less.

Our two new studies – one on hormone therapy and one on surgeries – looked at what happens before and after people access gender-affirming medical care.

For the first time, we’ve shown that gender-affirming care dramatically reduces how much people access mental health care – saving Medicare millions.

Trans people may seek out different types and degrees of gender-affirming care.

This can include:

procedures such as a mastectomy or breast surgery, to masculinise or feminise the appearance of the chest (sometimes known as “top surgery”)

genital reconstructive surgery (sometimes called “bottom surgery”)

hormonal treatments, including testosterone and estrogen-based medications.

Not every trans person wants gender-affirming care, but........

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