Almost all trans people are more satisfied with life after transitioning, massive new study finds

Ninety-four percent of transgender people said that they were either a little or a lot more satisfied with their lives since they transitioned, the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) found.

The study, which is the latest edition of the influential survey of transgender people, involved 92,329 transgender and nonbinary respondents answering questions about various aspects of their lives from October 19 to December 5, 2022. The NCTE recently released an “early insights” summary of the findings.

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Among the respondents who are receiving hormone replacement therapy, 98% reported that they are either a lot or a little more satisfied with their lives since they started HRT. Less than 1% of respondents said that they were less satisfied with life since starting HRT, which could be a result of how anyone who found that HRT made their lives worse would have simply stopped HRT.

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The same can’t be said for surgery, but a full 97% of trans people who had had at least one form of gender-affirming surgery said that they were either a little or a lot more satisfied with their lives since the surgery. Less than two percent said they were less satisfied.

While transgender people were overwhelmingly satisfied with their personal decisions regarding their transitions, they often found that others around them were not supportive. Only 67% of adult respondents whose families knew they were trans said that their families were supportive of them, and 12% said that their families were unsupportive. That number increased for 16- to 17-year-old trans people; 29% said that their families were unsupportive.

The study also found evidence of widespread anti-trans discrimination. Eighteen percent of respondents said they were unemployed, far higher than the 3.6% unemployment rate for the whole U.S. population in November 2022. Additionally, 34% said that they were living in poverty, and 11% said that they had lost a job due to their gender identity or expression.

Three percent said that they were physically attacked due to their identity in the previous 12 months, and 30% said that they were verbally harassed because of their trans identity in the previous 12 months.

Five percent of USTS respondents said that they had already left their state due to anti-trans legislation, and 47% said that they considered leaving their state. Since even more anti-trans legislation was introduced and passed in 2023 than in 2022, the numbers could be higher now. Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia were the most likely states for trans people to leave.

“It’s truly astonishing to know that people living in the United States at this time are having to think about leaving their home state, let alone that so many people have actually had to leave,” said Dr. Sandy James, lead researcher for the USTS, during a press call yesterday.

“It’s really striking that this is spread around the country in response to this, essentially, discrimination out of the state Legislature and the government,” NCTE executive director Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen told reporters. “I think that really paints a picture of how pervasive and damaging that discrimination is.”

Read more findings from the Early Insights Report.