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  4. May 2023
  5. Hormone Therapy, Suicidal Risk, and Transgender Youth in the United States

AEA Papers and Proceedings

ISSN 2574-0768 (Print) | ISSN 2574-0776 (Online)

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Hormone Therapy, Suicidal Risk, and Transgender Youth in the United States

  • Travis Campbell
  • Samuel Mann
  • Duc Hien Nguyen
  • Yana van der Meulen Rodgers
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 113, May 2023
(pp. 551–55)
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Abstract

This study uses the 2015 US Transgender Survey to test how initiation of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) affects the risk of attempting suicide among transgender individuals. We constructed a retrospective panel and employed a stacked event study design to demonstrate that HRT is associated with a substantially lower risk of suicide attempt. The average treatment effect on the treated is a decrease of 5.7 percentage points in the risk of ever attempting suicide if HRT is started between the ages of 14 and 17, which amounts to a 14.4 percent reduction in the risk of attempting suicide relative to the pretreatment mean.

Citation

Campbell, Travis, Samuel Mann, Duc Hien Nguyen, and Yana van der Meulen Rodgers. 2023. "Hormone Therapy, Suicidal Risk, and Transgender Youth in the United States." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 113: 551–55. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20231057

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • I12 Health Behavior
  • J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination