Investigators
Alice White, Thomas Pearce, Isabelle Coenen, Christian Tjiam, Xander Bickendorf, Penelope Strauss, Aris Siafarikas, Deborah Strickland, Jonatan Leffler
Project description
There is a growing body of research demonstrating that sex hormones including oestrogen and testosterone affect the way the immune system operates. In cisgender1 (cis) adults this is known to lead to sex-based differences for diseases such as: infectious disease, risk of autoimmune disease, different effectiveness from vaccinations and different risks for some cancers. However, it is currently unclear how this may relate to transgender2 (trans) people. Gender affirming care for trans young people may involve the use of stage 1 puberty blocking hormones, and stage 2 hormones (oestrogen or testosterone) usually prescribed from 16 years or older. For trans young people, timely access to gender affirming care is strongly related to positive mental health outcomes. Moreover, the current scientific evidence supports that this treatment is safe, effective, and beneficial to quality of life. Since trans people who commence estrogen or testosterone commonly choose to remain on this treatment for life; there is an unmet need for trans health research that is directly translatable to clinical practice.
The Gender and IMmunity study (GIM) aims to evaluate how gender-affirming hormone therapy impacts the immune system in young trans individuals, and how this translates to short and long-term health outcomes. Biological samples are collected from trans young people seen at Perth Children’s Hospital, and these are being used to evaluate the impact of hormone treatment using specialised analysis of antibody levels and cellular immune cell profiles. Together, this approach is expected to yield a highly detailed picture of immune function in trans young people including: immune protection, vaccine responses and susceptibility to autoimmunity. It is hoped that this unique study will improve the understanding of fundamental biological processes and provide scientifically based evidence on how gender-affirming hormone therapy impacts the immune system for the benefit of trans young people.
- Individuals with a biological sex that aligns with their gender identity are referred to as cisgender (cis), denoted as cis male or cis female
- Individuals with a gender-identity that does not align with their biological sex are referred to as transgender (trans), denoted as trans male or trans female
Recent publications
Funders
- WA Child health research grant from the Western Australian department of health
- WA Future Health and Research Fund, Near-miss award
- Fellowship from WA Future Health and Research Fund
- Fellowship from the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation
External collaborators
- Ashleigh Lin (UWA)
- Martyn French (UWA)
- Julia K. Moore (PCH)
- Elizabeth Saunders (PCH)