Transgender men may be affected by testosterone’s effects on their immune system
As reported by Scientific American, researchers studied a group of 23 men aged between 18 and 37 for a period of one year. The researchers wanted to know how testosterone could affect the participants’ vulnerability to viral infection and autoimmune disease, which has been shown to be different between men and women. As the outlet notes, men tend to be more vulnerable to viral infections, while women are more prone to autoimmune diseases, though it is unclear whether genetics, hormones, or other factors account for that difference.
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As part of the Swedish study, researchers took blood samples from all 23 trans men before they started gender-affirming hormone therapy. Stay connected to your community by subscribing to our newsletter.
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A third blood sample taken after 12 months on testosterone showed a decrease in an immune response involving type I interferon, a protein the body uses to fight viral infections, and an increase in a signaling pathway involving tumor necrosis factor, which is involved in fighting bacterial infections through inflammation, according to Scientific American.
Researchers also took blood samples from cisgender female donors and exposed them to either testosterone or an estrogen blocker. The researchers found that testosterone was directly responsible for the increase in tumor necrosis factors in trans men’s samples. They also found that testosterone also affected the type I interferon response but noted that previous studies have suggested that estrogen may also be involved.
Essentially, the results of the study, published earlier this month in the journal Nature, suggest that taking testosterone may make people more vulnerable to viral infections while increasing their bodies’ ability to fight off bacterial infections.
However, the study’s authors urged caution. “We can’t say that these individuals are now more susceptible to any infection, and so on, but what we can say is that their immune profiles do alter or change in a way that is more similar to
men,” co-author Petter Brodin, a professor of pediatric immunology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, told Scientific American.
Dawn Newcomb, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who was not involved in the research, noted the study’s small sample size and added that sex hormones are “likely one mechanism–not the only mechanism–at play.”[cisgender]Nils Landegren, an assistant professor at Uppsala University in Sweden who co-authored the study, cautioned against drawing conclusions about the risks of gender-affirming hormone therapy for transgender men without further information about actual disease outcomes. “We will need much larger numbers and longer follow-up,” he said.
“We should just urge caution for people taking hormone therapies for any purpose,” Brodin said, “and make sure that we follow up to see that there are no health consequences that we don’t intend.”
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