Mental Health of Youths Who Use Puberty Blockers.
Among transgender youths, puberty blocker use was associated with lower odds of suicidality.
Mental Health of Youths Who Use Puberty Blockers.
IMPORTANCE: Puberty blockers are an established, reversible intervention for central precocious puberty in children and gender dysphoria in adolescents.
To characterize the mental health of transgender youths prescribed puberty blockers compared with cisgender peers who received these medications for treatment of precocious puberty and with transgender and cisgender youths who did not receive these medications.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This retrospective cohort study used data from a US nationwide, multipayer claims database from January 2016 to January 2025.
puberty blockers linked to much lower odds of suicidality in transgender youth
Among 231 783 youths in the analytical sample, 41 472 youths (17.89%) were transgender (median [IQR] age at baseline, 9.00 [7.00-11.00] years; 31 246 with female gender marker [75.34%]) and 190 311 youths (82.11%) were cisgender (median [IQR] age at baseline, 8.00 [6.00-10.00] years; 128 942 with female gender marker [67.75%]).
Being transgender was associated with higher odds of mood disorder diagnosis (aOR, 4.42 [95% CI, 4.24-4.60]) and suicidal thoughts and behaviors (aOR, 12.21 [95% CI, 10.69-13.95]) compared with being cisgender.
In this study, transgender youths overall had substantially higher rates of diagnosed mood disorder and suicidal thoughts and behaviors than their cisgender peers, highlighting the need for population-specific interventions.
Prescription of a puberty blocker was associated with partial attenuation of this disparity, suggesting mental health benefits associated with this treatment for transgender youth.