Summary

Sociologist Michael Biggs estimated how many young patients of England's national youth gender clinic (GIDS) died by suicide between 2010 and 2020. Using hospital board papers and Freedom of Information requests, he found four known or suspected suicides, two of them among young people still on the waiting list, out of roughly 15,000 patients. That works out to about 13 suicides per 100,000 patients per year. This is around 5.5 times the rate for UK teenagers of similar age and sex mix, but still very rare (0.03% of patients). Biggs argues this shows higher risk, but also that claims that about half of trans youth attempt suicide give a misleading picture of how many die. Because it rests on four deaths, an estimated patient count and no data on other conditions, it is a rough figure. It says nothing about whether treatment raises or lowers risk.

Key findings

• Štirje bolniki GIDS so bili znani ali domnevni, da so umrli zaradi samomora v letih 2010–2020. Dva sta bila na čakalni listi in dva sta bila pregledana; ena smrt je še čakala na sodno preiskavo.
• Od približno 15.032 bolnikov štiri smrti pomenijo 0,03 %. To je daleč pod okoli 40–50 % „poskusi“ v življenju, ki se pogosto navajajo iz anket in kampanjskih skupin.
• Pri ocenjenih 30.080 letih bolnikov pod oskrbo klinike je bila letna stopnja samomorov približno 13 na 100.000, čeprav je lahko resnična številka kjerkoli od okoli 4 do 34.
• Po upoštevanju večinoma ženskih bolnikov klinike (69 %) je bila stopnja približno 5,5-krat višja kot pri vseh britanskih najstnikih, starih 14–17 let (2,7 na 100.000).
• Stopnja GIDS je bila približno 70-krat nižja od poročane za belgijsko kliniko za spol mladih (5 od 177 bolnikov) in približno štirikrat nižja kot za večinoma odraslo amsterdamsko kliniko.
• Čas na čakalni listi je predstavljal 41 % štetega časa, polovica samomorov pa se je zgodila med bolniki na čakalni listi, približno skladno s tem deležem.
• Avtor opozarja, da avtizem (14–15 % napotitev v GIDS v primerjavi z okoli 1 % angleških učencev), depresija in motnje hranjenja verjetno pojasnjujejo del višjega tveganja.

Conclusion

Data from the world's largest clinic for transgender youth over 11 years yield an estimated annual suicide rate of 13 per 100,000, 5.5 times greater than the overall suicide rate of adolescents of similar age after adjusting for sex composition. The estimate demonstrates elevated suicide risk among adolescents who identify as transgender, albeit without adjusting for accompanying psychological conditions such as autism. The proportion of patients who died by suicide (0.03%) is orders of magnitude smaller than the proportion of transgender adolescents who report attempting suicide in surveys. That deaths were so rare should provide some reassurance to transgender youth and their families, though it does not detract from the distress caused by non-fatal self-harm. The author argues it is irresponsible to exaggerate the prevalence of suicide, as this may itself increase the vulnerability of transgender adolescents.