New Research Confirms Findings of Previous Studies That Transgender People are Depressed and Miserable
More studies are coming out indicating that transgender people are depressed and have miserable lives. One survey showed that the rate of reported suicide attempts was higher for transgenders. This could mean that while they appear to take pride in their sexual orientation, they are actually unhappy.
A new paper revealed that this sorry state extends to their state of health. It found that transgender and nonconforming people are less healthy than their cisgender counterparts. Transgenders are those who don't identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender nonconforming refers to people who don't identify themselves as male or female.
The research was conducted by Brigham & Women's Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, both affiliated with Harvard Medical School in Boston. They used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a series of questions developed by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The questions pertaining to the respondents' gender identity were asked so that the health status of gender minorities can be examined. Researchers analyzed the responses from 315,893 people interviewed including 1,443 transgenders and gender nonconforming individuals by BRFSS in 28 states.
Analysis on the demographic trends from 2014 to 2015 yielded that gender minorities were disproportionately younger, poorer, less white, unemployed, overweight and depressed. They were also less likely to describe themselves as healthy compared to the general population.
About 29 percent of transgender and nonconforming individuals reported their health as fair or poor compared to 17 percent of cisgendered respondents. They were also more likely to be uninsured, have unmet medical needs and more likely to let a health problem go untreated.
The result doesn't bode well for gender minorities considering the findings of an earlier paper stating that transgender and gender nonconforming people are more likely to have mental problems. It is also an established fact that majority of those identified as HIV positive are made of gender minorities.
