Where Countries Stand on Teen Access to Gender-Affirming Care

Despite research having shown that gender-affirming care can lead to "major reductions in suicidality, depression and anxiety for trans youth", acceptance of such measures is not uniform in all countries. As part of its 2023 LGBT+ Pride Survey, Ipsos asked more than 22,000 people worldwide whether transgender teenagers should be able to access gender-affirming care with parental consent. This includes support in the form of counseling or hormone replacement therapy, however the organization said gender reassignment operations were excluded from the survey because they are only rarely performed on minors.

The results show that respondents in Thailand are most supportive of the treatments - 75 percent of survey participants there agreed with offering trans youth the support. The United Kingdom and United States were less open, with just under half of those surveyed in favor of giving transgender teenagers access to the measures. Hungary is the only country of the 30 included in the survey where opposition to gender-affirming care predominates. Around 48 percent of those polled were against access to such assistance, while 16 percent were not sure and just 36 percent voiced support.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the term “gender-affirming care” includes social, psychological and medical measures to support and affirm a person's gender identity if it conflicts with the gender assigned at birth. For example, counseling, hormone replacement treatment or gender reassignment surgery can help transgender people to align various aspects of their lives with their gender identity.

Written by: René Bocksch

Translated by: Anna Fleck