Transgender adults who, as adolescents, desired and received pubertal suppression had reduced odds of suicidal ideation, compared with those who wanted but didn’t receive pubertal suppression during their teen years.
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Raw frequency of lifetime suicidal ideation was 90% in transgender adults who wanted, but did not receive, pubertal suppression in adolescence, compared with 75% in those who did receive pubertal suppression in adolescence, according to a new analysis of a nationwide survey of transgender people reported in Pediatrics. After controlling for demographic variables, the lifetime adjusted odds ratio for suicidal ideation was 0.3 for those receiving pubertal suppression, compared with those who wanted but didn’t receive pubertal suppression.
The study was the first to examine this association, and findings were drawn from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, the largest known dataset of transgender adults, wrote the study’s lead author Jack Turban, MD, and coinvestigators.
“Suicidality is of particular concern for this population because the estimated lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts among transgender people is as high as 40%,” noted Dr. Turban, a psychiatry resident at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass., and coauthors. Anxiety, depression, and suicidality all are more common among transgender youth, who make up almost 2% of the nation’s adolescent population, they said.
Among transgender youth, the researchers explained, a spectrum exists: “Some have minimal body dysphoria and do not desire pubertal suppression, whereas others report significant dysphoria around the physical changes related to puberty.” Accordingly, they said, “We examined only those youth who desired pubertal suppression,” because this is the population of youth about whom clinicians need to make treatment decisions.
For individuals who might experience distress from the irreversible bodily changes of endogenous puberty, suppression via gonadotropin releasing hormone analogues (GnRHas) “allows these adolescents more time to decide if they wish to either induce exogenous gender-congruent puberty or allow endogenous puberty to progress,” wrote Dr. Turban and his collaborators.
The U.S. Transgender Survey dataset includes response from over 27,000 transgender adults with nationwide representation. However, this study included only participants who were younger than 17 years in 1998, when GnRHas for pubertal suppression became available. Filtering this group further to just those respondents between the ages of 18 and 36 years whose survey responses indicated they had ever wanted pubertal suppression yielded 3,494 individuals. Of these individuals, just 2.5% (89 participants) had ever received pubertal suppression.
“Results from this study suggest that the majority of transgender adults in the United States who have wanted pubertal suppression did not receive it,” noted the authors. Even among the youngest respondents – who received care during puberty most recently – just 5% of the 18-year-olds in 2015 desiring pubertal suppression actually received the treatment.
Among other associations, individuals who were younger, those with feminine gender identity, those with male sex assigned at birth, and those reporting heterosexual sexual orientation were more likely to have received pubertal suppression.
Receiving GnRHas also was more likely for individuals with higher household income and more family support of their gender identity. Without insurance, studies have indicated that the annual cost of GnRHA treatment can be $4,000-$25,000. Another study noted that at the Boston Children’s Hospital Gender Management Service before 2012, fewer than 20% of patients were able to get insurance coverage for pubertal suppression, according to Dr. Turban and colleagues.
The study looked at suicidality over the past year and lifetime suicidality, as well as severe psychological distress and binge drinking over the past month. Investigators also asked about lifetime history of illicit drug use, hypothesizing that those who received pubertal suppression would have “superior mental health outcomes” when compared to those who desired – but didn’t receive – pubertal suppression, wrote Dr. Turban and coauthors.
Suicidality within the past 12 months and severe psychological distress were both significantly more common among those who did not receive pubertal suppression, but these associations lost significance after multivariable analysis. There was no difference in odds of suicide attempts, although the study may have been underpowered to detect some of these associations, said the investigators.
After statistical analysis to control for demographic variables, pubertal suppression still was associated with decreased odds of having suicidal ideation over the lifespan.
Dr. Turban and colleagues acknowledged that reverse causation may have been in play, because adolescents with better mental health might have been considered better candidates for GnRHa therapy. But the study’s large sample size and wide geographic reach are strengths, they said, concluding that overall, the findings lend support to existing recommendations from the Endocrine Society and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health that pubertal suppression therapy be available to those adolescents who desire it.
Investigators were supported by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. The authors reported that they had no financial conflicts of interest.
SOURCE: Turban JL et al. Pediatrics. 2020;145(2):e20191725.