Endocrine Abstracts

It is well known that cardiovascular risk differs between men and women and that this difference also changes over life. Sex hormones are thought to play a critical role in these differences, although it is difficult to distinguish between hormonal, chromosomal and environmental factors. Part of the effect of sex hormones can be explained by the effects of sex hormones on body composition, blood pressure, and lipid and glucose metabolism. Transgenders feel incongruence between their experienced gender and their sex characteristics. Today, many of them want to start hormonal treatment to get the sex characteristics that match their gender identity. In the past, doctors were concerned about the effects of this treatment on cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporosis. This led to short and long follow-up studies on the safety of this new treatment. In my talk, I will present the results of these studies and show how they inform physicians involved in transgender care. Furthermore, I would like to present how these studies also provide mechanistic insights into the effect of sex hormones, which are not easy to obtain outside the transgender population.