Less than 0.1% of U.S. minors take gender-affirming medication, study finds

Source: NBC News

Jan. 6, 2025, 1:07 PM EST


As policymakers around the world debate whether minors should have access to transition-related medications, a study published Monday in the nation’s premier pediatric medical journal found that the drugs are rarely prescribed to youths. Less than 0.1% of adolescents with private insurance in the United States are transgender or gender-diverse and are prescribed puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones, according to the findings published in JAMA Pediatrics.

The research note, which analyzed the private insurance claims for more than 5.1 million young patients ages 8 to 17 from 2018 to 2022, also found that no transgender patients under 12 were prescribed gender-affirming hormones. Private insurers covered 65% of the country as of 2023, per the Census Bureau.

“It’s really important for the public to understand that not everyone is getting access to gender-affirming care when they go to the doctor,” said the report’s lead author, Landon Hughes, a fellow at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It’s not as ubiquitous as some may want us to believe, especially among youth.”

“There’s not some massive wave of folks accessing care,” Hughes added. “It is certainly a minuscule group of people who are getting access to this care, and it’s certainly eaten up a lot of the public discourse in the recent political, legal climate.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/less-01-us-minors-take-gender-affirming-medication-study-finds-rcna186139