Transgender people twice as likely to die prematurely: A'dam study

Transgender people who underwent a sex change are on average twice as likely to die prematurely, research by Amsterdam UMC found. Transgender people are more at risk of cardiovascular disease, HIV-related diseases, lung cancer, and unnatural causes of death like suicide, the researchers found, Trouw reports.

The study was conducted by the Amsterdam UMC gender clinic, the largest in the Netherlands. Over the past 50 years, the clinic treated 9 thousand people, slightly more than half of whom were examined for the study. 

The researchers found that women who made the male to female transition were twice as likely to die prematurely as the average male, and three times as likely as the average female. Men who made the female to male transition were twice as likely to die premature as the average woman, but there was no difference with the average man.

Over the past years, the risk of HIV and other diseases, decreased due to better treatment. The risk of suicide among transgender people is also smaller, due to better acceptance of gender reassignment and better awareness of mental health problems in general. Despite this, the risk of premature death among transgender people remains the same across the board - twice as high as in the population as a whole.