Suicide Risk Disparities

Research on GID-diagnosed, transgender, and transsexual populations is sparse, and no national-level health surveillance survey currently collects information that can be used to reliably identify these populations. The literature suggests that people diagnosed with GID may experience a significantly elevated risk for suicide. For example, a study of more than 300 transgender persons in Virginia documented that 65% had lifetime suicidal ideation. Similarly, a study of 70 US military veterans, most self-referred for a gender evaluation, found that 61% reported lifetime suicidal ideation.7 These estimates are much higher than the estimated 8.4% prevalence of lifetime suicidal ideation among the general adult US population. Elevated suicidal ideation has similarly been found among other samples of transgender persons in the United States