Cabán asks administration about strongest evidence linking affirming care to mental health

Thank you very much for your testimony and for being here.

I'm going to just start off with some questions around clinical evidence and research.

The clinical literature, and this was touched upon in your testimony, but including studies published in peer-reviewed journals and guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society,

consistently associates access to gender-affirming care with meaningful reductions in depression, anxiety, and suicidality amongst transgender youth.

What does DOHMH, what does the administration understand to be the strongest available evidence on the relationship between access to gender-affirming care and mental health outcomes for

TGNB youth, and how does that evidence inform the agency's public health guidance?

Council member, we have representatives from DOHMH who will be responding to the question and answer portion.

Oh, great.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, they can come up now.

We're at that pace.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, thank you.

Apologies.

We just have to swear you in also.

It's super quick.

Yeah.

Will you please raise your right hand?

Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth before these committees and to respond honestly to council member questions?

All right.

Did you have separate testimony you wanted to give?

Okay, great.

Perfect.

Then you can dive right in.

Fantastic, good afternoon.

My name is Marnie Davidoff.

I am the Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of Children, Youth, and Families and Developmental Disabilities at the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

So in response to your question, as so many of the council members have spoken about today, we know that there's overwhelming evidence that when

transgender and non-binary youth have appropriate access to individualized gender-affirming care, their mental health is improved.

In 2022, there was a prospective study.

Of 104 young people aged 13 to 20 who identified as transgender or non-binary, and it found that receipt of gender-affirming interventions

was associated with a lower odds ratio of moderate to severe depressive symptoms and significantly as well lower odds of self-harm or suicidal thoughts.

And a 2023 study that tracked 300 youth who identify as trans or non-binary, excuse me, for two years.

As they were receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy,

also showed significant decreases in depression and anxiety.

And, you know, we really believe firmly that this evidence is critical to shaping the way that we approach health and mental health care for youth

and are really using this to inform, you know, some of the planning and work that is ahead of us that was discussed earlier.