Endocrine Abstracts

JOINT1995

Objective: Cardiovascular diseases are proven to be the most common cause of death in the world. A number of scoring systems have been proposed to predict this risk. The prevalence of cardiovascular disease in individuals with gender dysphoria (GD) has been investigated in many small-group studies. In this study, we aimed to assess the cardiovascular risk scores of female-to-male (FtM) GD receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT).

Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Individuals with GD who received GAHT for at least 1 year were included in the study. A total of 43 FtM GD who consequtively applied were included. In addition, healthy cis-men (n = 15) and cis-women (n = 15) with the same body mass index and age were included in the study. Sociodemographic data, smoking status, glucose, lipid profiles, total testosterone levels of those who received GAHT for at least 1 year were measured. The atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), atherogenic coifficent (AC) and visceral adiposity index (VAI) were calculated for each participant.

Results: The mean age of FtM GD was 29.1 ± 5.7, the mean age of cis-women was 25.7 ± 3 years and the mean age of cis-men was 25 ± 0.8 years. In the present study, the neck circumference of cis men was significantly higher than that of cis-women and FtM GD (P = 0.005; P = 0.002, respectively). In addition, the neck circumference of FtM GD was statistically higher than that of cis-women (P < 0.001). While there was no statistical difference between FtM GD and cis-men in terms of waist-to-hip ratio (P > 0.05), the waist-to-hip ratio was significantly increased in FtM GD compared to cis- women (P < 0.001). When comparing the waist-to-height ratio, the waist-to-height ratio was statistically significantly increased in FtM GD compared to cis-women (P < 0.001). FtM GD had a statistically significantly higher TG/HDL ratio than cis-women (P = 0.006). When comparing the groups in terms of AC, there was no statistically significant difference between cis-women and cis-men, and between cismen and FtM GD (P > 0.05 for all). AC was statistically significantly increased in FtM GD compared to cis- women (P = 0.007).

Conclusion: This study suggests that FtM GD who received GAHT may have an increased cardiovascular risk compared to cis women. Our findings emphasize the importance of routine cardiometabolic risk assessment in FtM GD who have undergone GAHT.