Primary Submission Category: LGBTQ+
Trans(ition): Gender Identity and Desire for Medical Transition in a United States Policy Context
Authors: Lee Brady,
Presenting Author: Lee Brady*
The desire to pursue gender affirming medical treatment, including hormone replacement therapy and gender affirming surgeries, is common among transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse populations. Medical transition is widely utilized to treat diagnoses of gender dysphoria (previously gender identity disorder) in trans individuals; however, a significant contingent of trans people report little to no desire for transition-related medical intervention. Although access to medical transition is largely understood to have positive impacts on mental and physical health outcomes for transgender individuals, no studies to date have explore the variation in desire for gender affirming medical care among transgender individuals of different gender identities, and the role of local legal climate.
Using data from the 2015 United States Transgender Survey (n = 23,380), this study assesses the associations between gender identity and desire for medical transition among transgender adults in the United States. Further, the influence of state-level social policy climate is analyzed as a potential explanatory factor for this variation in desire for transition-related medical care.
Results indicate that gender identity is a strong predictor of desire for medical transition, with transgender women reporting less desire for medical transition compared to either transgender men or nonbinary individuals. Social policy climate, however, was not associated with desire for medical transition.
This analysis of the gender identity groups who most desire medical intervention in their transition, and the associations between desire and indicators of stigma highlight a need for comprehensive legal protections for transgender populations and healthcare access across the United States. This more nuanced understanding suggests that a one-size-fits-all policy on gender affirming care does not effectively address the needs of the transgender individuals in the United States.