Former Area News sports editor Holly Hazlewood said living with the weight of a hidden identity could lead to serious mental health concerns.

According to Ms Hazlewood, identifying as transgender is more than just not liking how your body looks.

"There are unique considerations when it comes to trans identifying individuals and gender dysphoria and how it relates to their own body," Ms Hazlewood said.

"It can cause pretty extreme emotional and psychological distress when your birth gender doesn't match with how you actually feel.

"Many people don't have a great grasp of this because if they don't have a link to someone who is trans, they struggle to understand why this is such a big issue."

And whilst it is liberating to fully accept yourself and live openly the financial barriers associated with fully transitioning will continue to be a big concern.

Costs for gender affirming surgeries vary, but estimates range between $30,000 to $40,000, a significant amount that not all can afford when needed, and these surgeries are not subsidised through Medicare benefits.

"When you look at the average wage, a lot of people struggle to save that kind of money," Ms Hazlewood said.

"So very often people just can't afford to have the affirming surgery that they desperately need."

According to LGBTIQ+ Health Australia, transgender and gender diverse people aged 15 to 25 years old are 15 times more likely to attempt suicide than the general population and experience high levels of psychological distress in comparison to traditionally gendered people.

And after transitioning herself, Ms Hazlewood understands the mental health implications better than most.

"You don't need surgery to be transgender or gender diverse, your identity is still just as valid without it," Ms Hazlewood said.

"However quite often people don't have gender affirming surgery simply because of the financial barriers that exist."

Ms Hazlewood told The Area News that gender affirming surgeries were a means of 'suicide prevention'.

"Surgeries like this aren't just cosmetic, these surgeries legitimately are suicide prevention because tragically the wider LGBTQIA+ community suffers from disproportionately higher rates of suicide and self harm, depression and anxiety," Ms Hazlewood said.

"Explaining how emotionally draining and devastating this can be is a really hard thing to try and explain."

Her voice comes in the wake of a submitted petition for the subsidisation of gender affirming surgery and gender reassignment services through Medicare for trans-identifying individuals, which received close to 150,000 signatures.

The petition calls on the Federal Government to make these service eligible for Medicare benefits.

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"Quite often we have to rely on our community to rally together and raise money for those needing surgery," Ms Hazlewood said.

"Without community intervention this would be near impossible and you can just see how happy people are after they have been able to transition.

"The world is just that much brighter for them."

Ms Hazlewood encouraged residents of regional communities like Griffith to challenge what they know about what it is to be male and female.

"The fact that people live in regional or rural areas doesn't have to be a hindrance to understanding these things, use the internet, there are lots of great resources," Ms Hazlewood said.

"It is hard when you don't see transgender or gender diverse people walking down the streets of country towns like Griffith but queer people are everywhere, more than you realise."

If you would like to learn more about this issue, www.lgbtiqhealth.org.au/hub offers a range of educational and informative resources.

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