A new LiveScience story examines the high rate of mental health problems in transgender kids and adolescents. 

Based partially on a 2010 study that found 41 percent of trans* people in the U.S. have attempted suicide, the article examines how having a gender identity that doesn’t match one’s body can cause serious psychiatric complications. 

Researchers attributed those rates to discrimination and stigma, as well as a lack of laws protecting transgender people from employment discrimination. Poor insurance coverage of hormones and other treatments to help a transgender person transition to their desired gender also account for the rates, the researchers found. 

But the mismatch between mind and body alone can be a major source of psychological pain, Leibowitz said. Of 97 patients who came to the Endocrine Division for hormones and other treatments related to gender identity disorder between January 1998 and February 2010, 44.3 percent had significant mental health histories. Twenty percent had self-mutilated, and 9.3 percent had attempted suicide at least once. About 37 percent were taking psychiatric medication.

These are some pretty serious numbers, but it’s something we need to know if we’re going to address it properly. So - how do we address it properly?