1 - Trans and gender diverse ageing and the life course: what can evidence from quantitative studies tell us about how trans people age?

Summary

Introduction

Research exploring LGBTQ+ lives is notably peppered with evidence gaps (King et al, 2018), and this is particularly true for evidence offering insights into the ageing experiences and trajectories of older trans people (Kneale et al, 2021). Much of the existing literature on trans and gender diverse people focuses on younger people's experiences, particularly around medical transition (Willis et al, 2021), and where literature has centred on older trans people's experiences, it has often focused on problematic relationships with healthcare providers and to a lesser extent on relationships with social care or housing providers (King, 2015; Bouman et al, 2016; King and Stoneman, 2017; Willis et al, 2021). Examples that document positive experiences of trans ageing, in addition to experiences of discrimination and exclusion, are much rarer. However, qualitative studies that draw on inductive approaches highlight that many older trans people regard older age as a period to live life to the full (Willis et al, 2021).

Understanding trans people's ageing experiences using quantitative methods can often involve attempting to impose crisp parameters around concepts that are, by their nature, fuzzy, complex and evolving. Callahan (2021) highlights how terminology used to describe trans people has evolved from earlier terms that reflected clothing and appearance to those that reflect more holistic understandings of gender diversity. Our own search for literature in this area drew on Stonewall's (2023) (non- exhaustive) list of 17 terms associated with trans identities, from those with more clinical origins such as transsexual to more encompassing terms such as non- binary (Stonewall, 2023). A second fuzzy concept relates to older people and ageing. Defining people as ‘older people’ on the basis of their chronological age is conceptually fraught. Population ageing and increases in longevity mean that we now apply the label of ‘older person’ to 60- year- olds, for example, who may remain in this category for two or three decades, and in doing so we implicitly – and erroneously – assume and ascribe commonalities to this period of life afterwards (Kydd et al, 2018). Evidence from longitudinal studies such as the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), can help to challenge such assumptions, and these studies typically start to monitor expectations and preparations for older age and experiences of ageing among those aged 50 and over (Steptoe et al, 2013).