Transgender Veterans Have High Rates Of Mental Health Problems
Among military veterans identifying as transgender, 90 percent have at least one mental health diagnosis, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression, and nearly 50 percent had a hospitalisation after a suicide attempt or suicidal thoughts.
These study findings, from a single veterans’ hospital, will be presented Friday at The Endocrine Society‘s 98th annual meeting in Boston.
“As more of our active military returns from deployment and transitions to veteran status, the health care system will be faced with treating more transgender veterans who have mental health issues,” said principal investigator Marissa Grotzke, MD, an endocrinologist at Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), Salt Lake City.
Compared with the general U.S. population, the military and its veterans have a fourfold higher rate of gender dysphoria, according to Grotzke. Formerly called gender identity disorder, gender dysphoria is substantial distress associated with nonconformity to one’s assigned sex.
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