Taking estrogen after gender-affirming surgery improves brain connections key to memory, learning and emotion in transgender women, a new study finds.
Not only does this suggest that trans women should keep up hormone therapy post-op, it also underscores the deep connection between hormones and brain connectivity.
After having bottom surgery, removing the testicles, trans women experience the same symptoms that post-menopausal women do, such as hot flashes and night sweats.
The discovery, made by scientists at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and at the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre in Brazil, suggests that estrogen therapy may benefit the brains of trans women and post-menopausal women alike.
Taking estrogen improves connections between the part of the brain that sorts sensory information and those responsible for emotions, memory, motor skills and more
As research advances, we are discovering more and more how central hormones are to many physical processes - and how interconnected these systems are.
The hormone or endocrine system plays a key role in instigating everything from how we process food to how stress effects the body and even our heartbeats.
And the new research sheds light on how sex hormones affect the brain, too.
For trans women, gender-affirming surgery can do wonders to dispel lifelong dysphoria, in turn improving mental health and overall quality of life.
As the trans community and trans issues are finally becoming more socially accepted, doctors have seen a swell in the number of people seeking and having gender-affirming operations.
In the case of trans women, a complete transition means removing the testicles and penis - and with them the production center for male hormones.
Prior to surgery, many trans women take estrogen - in addition to testosterone blockers and progesterones, in many cases - to encourage their transition.
These hormones have a four-part effect on trans women's bodies and minds.
An infusion of estrogen, coupled with falling testosterone levels, can alter the way a trans woman senses and feels things, redistribute fat, trigger breast growth, change the skin, may trigger the emotional roller coaster of simulated puberty, change hair growth, sex organs and sexuality and more.
There are two categories of fairly clear but poorly understood effects of
