WHEN gender-diverse or transgender people have surgeries to affirm their gender, they experience a variety of positive mental health outcomes, new research shows.
The study found an association between the surgeries, which participants had at least two years prior to a survey, and significantly lower rates of past-month psychological distress, past-year suicidal ideation and past-year smoking, compared to transgender and gender diverse people who had not had gender-affirming surgery but wanted it.
The findings come at a particularly critical time, as some states move to ban certain gender-affirming treatments and surgeries for transgender minors.
“Going into this study, we certainly did believe that the gender-affirming surgeries would be protective against adverse mental health outcomes,” said lead author Anthony Almazan, an MD/MPH candidate at Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
“I think we were pleasantly surprised by the strength of the magnitudes of these
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