New research suggests that suicide death risk in transgender people has not increased over time in the Netherlands. But the study also indicates that transgender individuals are still at heightened risk of suicide during every stage of transitioning.
(If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or follow this link to their online chat.)
The study, which appears in the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, was based on people seen at the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria.
“There were several reasons why we were interested in evaluating the suicide death risk in the group of people referred to our clinic over the years,” said study author Thomas D. Steensma, a principal investigator at the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria at the VU University Medical Center Amsterdam.
“We know from the literature that transgender individuals are vulnerable to having feelings, thoughts, behaviors linked to suicidality. With the increase in attention to transgender people we also see a greater societal acceptance, and wanted to see whether the suicide death risk decreased over the years.”
“We have also observed a sharp increase of referrals to our clinic over the last decade, at the same time we saw an increase in the absolute number of suicides. We wanted to know whether this was a relative increase, correcting the number of suicide deaths for the number of referrals. In that sense it was an evaluation/safety study for our own clinic.”
The study included information from 8,263 adults, adolescents, and children who had been referred to the clinic between 1972 and 2017. Forty‐nine of them died by suicide.
The researchers found that the mean number of suicides in the years 2013–2017 was three to four times higher in their transgender sample compared to the general Dutch population. Overall, trans women had a higher suicide death risk than trans men. But the researchers also found that suicide death risk had decreased over time for trans women.
“We see no increase in suicide death risk over time in the Netherlands and even a decrease in trans women,” Steensma told PsyPost.
Two‐thirds of the observed suicides occurred in transgender people who were in the diagnostic, hormonal, or surgical phase of treatment. “This indicates that vulnerability for suicide occurs similarly in the different stages of transition,” the researchers said.
“The next step from this research is to focus on suicide prevention programs. We have to get greater insight in what the factors of influence are for suicide death risk in the transgender population and whether these factors are specific for the transgender population and/or in the different stages of transitioning. With this knowledge we will be able to develop specific and more effective suicide preventions programs for the transgender population,” Steensma said.
“Although it is a difficult and a sensitive subject, studying suicide death risk is important. Especially in the transgender population, who are shown to have a greater vulnerability for suicide risk behaviors and suicide deaths. The findings from these studies should by no means be used as an argument against providing medical treatments in this population — the findings should be used to gain more knowledge to effectively counsel this group of people in their transition and improve their quality of life.”
The study, “Trends in suicide death risk in transgender people: results from the Amsterdam Cohort of Gender Dysphoria study (1972-2017)“, was authored by Chantal M. Wiepjes, Martin den Heijer, Marijke A. Bremmer, Nienke M. Nota, Christel J.M. de Blok, Brand J.G. Coumou, and Thomas D. Steensma.
(Image by Natálie Šteyerová from Pixabay)