Story highlights Study estimates cost of military transition care averages less than $30,000 per person

Defense Department is reviewing ban on transgender members

(CNN) The cost of transition-related care for transgender personnel would be "negligible," according to a newly published study, which comes on the heels of talk that the Pentagon may lift its ban on transgender people openly serving in the military.

Transition-related care includes "gender affirming surgery, cross-sex hormone therapy, or both," according to Aaron Belkin, author of the article, which is published in the New England Journal of Medicine

Helping transgender military personnel transition will cost the military as little at 22 cents per service member per month, or $5.6 million annually, the study contends.

Belkin estimates that 12,800 transgender personnel are currently serving in the U.S. armed forces and, of those, he expects approximately 188 would utilize transition-related care per year.

Surgeries, hormones or both would cost an average of $29,929 over six and a half years per personnel receiving such treatment, according to the study.

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