Tag Archives: Transgender medical care

February 2023—Sex hormones, rather than sex assigned at birth, may be a stronger driver of the observed concentration differences between healthy men and women for biomarkers of cardiac disease, say the authors of a study published in JAMA Cardiology (Greene DN, et al. JAMA Cardiol. 2022;7[11]:1170–1174).

July 2022—Gabrielle Winston-McPherson, PhD, could be talking about almost any aspect of laboratory medicine as she recounts how the Henry Ford Health chemistry division, in which she is associate director, has identified a patient care need. She talks about the desire to improve health outcomes. Identifying problems in the preanalytical process. Appropriate test utilization. Putting together a team to develop training material. Assembling data and information prior to implementation. Informatics challenges. And, naturally, the perpetual financial concern of ensuring allocation of limited resources. How else would she—or any other laboratory professional—talk about the lab’s role in transgender health care? In fact, there are many other ways to discuss the topic. “It’s been in the news a lot these days, obviously,” says Matthew Krasowski, MD, PhD, clinical professor and vice chair, clinical pathology and laboratory services, University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics. In fact, there are many other ways to discuss the topic.

February 2021—Cisgender male reference intervals can be used to interpret testosterone concentrations in transgender and nonbinary adults on masculinizing therapy, but reference intervals specific to the transmasculine population should be used to evaluate estradiol, say the authors of a recently published study.

November 2019—Current sex-specific intervals can be used to interpret hematology results for transgender people using their affirmed gender, say authors of a study published earlier this year.

September 2017—The intricacies of transgender medicine are many. They are unique; they are universal. A la Walt Whitman, they contain multitudes: identities, challenges, questions, even fears. But the first step toward comprehending them can be simple. Tim Cavanaugh, MD, started with a cup of coffee. Dr. Cavanaugh, of Fenway Health, Boston, began delving into the topic about a decade ago, when an assistant administrator at his previous job, at a small community health center in Rhode Island, told the center’s leaders that the transgender population was medically underserved.

August 2017—Talk about personalized medicine. While the national discussion about transgender women and men often pivots on civil rights legislation (exhibit A: so-called bathroom bills), the medical community has quietly begun to ask questions about how to provide care for transgender patients. In the process, assumptions are being turned sideways. And as laboratory professionals are realizing, the impact can affect everything from start (patient identification, test ordering) to finish (test results, billing), seemingly one patient at a time.