MAG 2026-1. Authors: Mia Aktaş (Tilburg University – Department of Economics).
Over the past decade, more adolescents around the world have sought gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers, which temporarily pause the physical changes of puberty. For transgender youth, whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned to them at birth, this can create more time for assessment and decision-making. Although some short-term mental-health effects have been studied, much less is known about longer-term socioeconomic outcomes.
This study aims to fill that gap using data from the Netherlands, which has the longest-running cohort of transgender individuals who have used puberty blockers. By comparing transgender adolescents who received puberty blockers with those who did not, and with cisgender individuals, the project examines how puberty blockers affect educational achievement, mental health, and early career outcomes. The study uses waiting time until intake as an instrumental variable to estimate causal effects.
The findings could inform clinicians, policymakers, and advocates by clarifying the longer-run consequences of early medical intervention at a time when access to puberty blockers is under intense public and political scrutiny in several countries.
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