Gender-affirming HT improves appearance matching in transgender adolescents

Survey data show that transgender and nonbinary youth had higher appearance conformity (the experience of physical appearance matching their gender) and less depression and anxiety after two years of gender-affirming hormone therapy .

“Our results provide robust scientific evidence that improved appearance matching with hormone therapy is strongly associated with improved mental health. transgender and nonbinary youth,” Dr. Diane Chen A pediatric psychologist in charge of the gender and sexual development program at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago and an associate professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, according to a press release. “This is important given that transgender youth experience depression and anxiety and are at higher risk of suicide than cisgender youth.”

Researchers recruited 315 transgender or gender nonbinary adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 20 years. Gender-affirming HT Four US gender clinics (mean age 16 years, 64.8% female designation rate at birth). Study visits were performed at the start of HT and at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months follow-up. Participants completed measures of positive impact and life satisfaction from the Transgender Conformity Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale, and the NIH Toolbox Emotion Battery to measure body conformity at each study visit. completed with

The survey results are New England Journal of Medicine.

Changes in all psychosocial outcomes were observed during the study. In this cohort, appearance matching increased by an average of 0.48 points per year on his 5-point scale, life impact scores increased by 0.8 points per year on a 100-point scale, and life satisfaction scores increased by 2.32 points per year. A perfect score is 100. We also observed a 1.27-point decrease in depression scores from a 63-point scale and a 1.46-point decrease in anxiety scores from a 100-point scale during the 2-year follow-up period.

Researchers observed a correlation between high appearance match scores and low depression scores (r = –0.6) and anxiety (r = –0.4) at baseline. Improvements in appearance match scores over time were associated with decreases in depression scores (r = –0.68) and anxiety (r = –0.52). The higher the baseline appearance match, the higher the positive impact baseline score (r = 0.46) and life satisfaction (r = 0.72), and improved appearance matching over time was associated with increased positive affect (r = 0.74) and life satisfaction (r = 0.84).

Lower depression and anxiety scores and improved life satisfaction were observed in adolescents designated as female at birth, but not in adolescents designated as male at birth. At baseline, young people of color had higher scores on appearance match and positive affect than white young people, but during the study, white adolescents experienced a greater reduction in depression scores than did white young people. Researchers reported that it was large.

Adolescents who started gender-affirming HT in early adolescence had higher scores for appearance match, life satisfaction, positive impact, and depression at baseline than adolescents who started HT in late adolescence. and anxiety scores were low. Over time, adolescents who initiated her HT in late adolescence had a significantly improved appearance match than those who initiated her HT in early adolescence.

“We are currently following this cohort to see if the improvement in function is maintained over a longer follow-up period. Given that, we hope to discover additional predictors of change to identify young people: gender-affirming HT alone is not sufficient to address mental health issues,” the researchers wrote. increase. “We intend to initiate further studies with this cohort to focus on understanding the reasons for discontinuing sex-confirming hormones among the small subgroup of adolescents who discontinue treatment.”

reference:

Research: Gender-affirming hormones improve mental health in transgender and nonbinary youth. www.luriechildrens.org/en/news-stories/study-gender-affirming-hormones-improve-mental-health-in-transgender-and-nonbinary-youthPosted on January 18, 2023. Accessed January 27, 2023.

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