Big survey shows that 94% of transgender Americans who have transitioned are happy with their choice

The US Transgender Survey shows that trans people who come out and start presenting and living as their true selves experience a vast improvement in their quality of life.

The National Center for Transgender Equality in the US has published the results of a survey of 92,329 transgender Americans.

The survey that documents beyond reasonable doubt that yes, trans people who accept their gender identity are happier than before. And yes, in an overwhelming number of cases hormone treatments and gender-affirming surgery improve their quality of life.

Needless to say, this is a survey “gender critical” TERFs and right wing transphobes will do their best to ignore.

On transitioning

The U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) reports:

Nearly all respondents (94%) who lived at least some of the time in a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth (“gender transition”) reported that they were either “a lot more satisfied” (79%) or “a little more satisfied” (15%) with their life.

Three percent (3%) reported that transitioning gender made them “neither more nor less satisfied” with their life, 1% were “a little less satisfied”, and 2% were “a lot less satisfied” with their life.

The claim that a lot of trans people regret transitioning is clearly a lie.

We should also keep in mind that as far as “regretters” go, many report dissatisfaction not because they were wrong about their gender identity, but because the people close to them did not accept them.

On hormone treatment

Nearly all respondents (98%) receiving hormone treatment reported that this treatment made them either “a lot more satisfied” (84%) or “a little more satisfied” (14%) with their life.

On surgery

The similar numbers for gender-affirming surgery was 88% for “a lot more satisfied” or 9% for “a little more satisfied”. Only 2 percent was some shade of “less satisfied”.

On identity

Of the 84,170 adult respondents, 38% identified as nonbinary, 35% as transgender women, 25% as transgender men and 2% as crossdressers.

“Crossdresser” as a cultural category is clearly been replaced by terms like nonbinary and by “crossdressers” realizing that this was not only about the clothes.

Support from families

I am glad to see that the support trans people get from their families is getting better, although not as good as we could have hoped.

36% of adult respondents who said that some or all of their immediate family knew that they were transgender reported their family members were “supportive” of them being transgender, and 31% said they were “very supportive.”

Among 16- and 17-year-old respondents, 27% said their family members were “supportive”, and 17% “very supportive.”

Young people (16–17) are facing the hardest resistance, with 29% reporting unsupportive family members. There is probably a selection bias here, as more of the older trans people who have transitioned have done so because they have gotten support from their families. Others continue to live in the closet out of fear of losing their loved ones. Older trans people are also more likely to have chosen important family members, like their partners, avoiding transphobes in the process.

NBC News has more. Figures from Early Insights: A Report of the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey and NBC. Photo: vandervelden

Originally published at https://trans-express.lgbt on February 7, 2024.