Number of transgender troops in US army has doubled since 2020 - and taxpayers have spent $26m on sex change surgeries and treatments for them

The Pentagon has spent more than $26million treating transgender troops since 2020, official records show.

The number of US army staff with gender dysphoria has doubled in that time — from around 1,800 to 3,700, according to DoD data seen by DailyMail.com.

In the past three years, $17.5m in taxpayer money was spent on psychotherapy for trans service people and $1.5m went towards hormone drugs.

A further $7.6m funded gender-affirming surgeries, including facial tweaks to make a recruit more masculine or feminine, and the removal or creation of breasts and genitals.

The number of military personnel diagnosed with gender dysphoria has risen from 1,892 in 2020 to 3,700 in 2024

Since 2020, $17.5 million was spent on psychotherapy, $1.5 million on hormone therapy and $7.6 million on gender-affirming surgeries, according to Defense Department data provided to DailyMail.com

The US Military Health System spends about $50bn annually to provide care to 9.6 million active duty service members, retirees, and their families through its TRICARE health plans.

According to its website, TRICARE does not generally cover surgery for the treatment of gender dysphoria, but active duty service members 'may request a waiver for medically necessary gender affirming surgery.' 

The total number of transgender individuals in the armed forces is unknown, because it is likely not all of them have sought treatment. 

But as of last month, 3,700 active military personnel were diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria, according to DHA spokesman Peter Graves. 

This includes 1,240 Army soldiers, 1,046 Navy soldiers, 1,024 Air Force airmen and 278 Marine Corps.

They account for 0.3 percent of military personnel, which is lower than the 0.6 percent of trans people in the US population more broadly.

In 2020, 1,892 military personnel had been diagnosed and treated for gender dysphoria, including 726 Army soldiers, 576 Navy sailors, 449 Air Force airmen and 141 Marines.

This accounted for 0.1 percent of the 1,333,822 active duty military personnel at the time.

The increase in gender dysphoria diagnoses is not out of balance with the increase of transgender individuals seen in the general population, which has been attributed to growing acceptance in society.

Former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., left, gives challenge coins to US Army Maj. Ian Brown, right, and other military service members in 2019 to thank them for their service. Brown, 38, is a two-time Bronze Star recipient who transitioned from female to male while advising the Army's deputy chief of staff in operations and planning

According to the Defense Health Agency, the surgeries were performed in military health facilities and included removal of breasts or testicles, hysterectomies and labiaplasty - creating of or reshaping the flesh around a vagina

A range of different gender-affirming procedures have been performed on members of the military since 2020, but the most popular was facial reconstruction surgery.

These are designed to make people look more feminine or masculine and include reshaping forehead and brow, jaw and chin contouring and the removal or creation of an Adam's apple.

The next most popular surgery was a mastectomy, or the removal of breasts, with 192 of these being performed since 2021. 

Rarer surgeries include one vaginectomy, which is an operation to remove all or part of the vagina, one clitoroplasty, a procedure to create a clitoris, and one scrotoplasty - the re-arrangement of the labia to create a scrotum.

Three individuals also underwent gender-affirming voice training in 2022, which involves helping transgender people adjust their voices to communication patterns that fit their gender identity, according to Mayo Clinic. 

Two unclassified surgeries also took place between 2022 and 2023. 

Individuals must be at least 17 years old to join the US military. 

In 2017, then-President Donald Trump announced through a series of tweets that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military.

Biden reversed the policy on his fifth day in office in January 2021.