By RORY BARBAROSSA

A new European study finds that the suicide rate for transgender women who are denied breast implants is a staggering thirty times higher than for the average person.

These rates reflect what researchers say is a strong need for these individuals to “fit in as women in their everyday life.”

The researchers from the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights (RFSL) reported that transgender women can suffer from a number of psychological problems if they are refused breast implants as an extension to hormone treatment. The data shows that this in turn translates into an alarmingly” high suicide rate, the study reported on the Swedish website, The Local.

According to RFSL, the data shows that cosmetic surgery for transgender patients saves lives. The study also indicates that the suicide rate among transgender patients who are denied breast implants is 30 to 40 percent, compared with just 1.6 percent of the greater population.

Petitioning Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare to draw up guidelines for doctors and hospitals, the group wrote, “RFSL demands that care for transgender people be given under the same conditions regardless of where one lives in Sweden.”

PHOTO: MICHA CARDENAS / TransReal.org