Pain mechanisms in the transgender individual: a review

Specific Aim

Provide an overview of the literature addressing major areas pertinent to pain in transgender persons and to identify areas of primary relevance for future research.

Methods

A team of scholars that have previously published on different areas of related research met periodically though zoom conferencing between April 2021 and February 2023 to discuss relevant literature with the goal of providing an overview on the incidence, phenotype, and mechanisms of pain in transgender patients. Review sections were written after gathering information from systematic literature searches of published or publicly available electronic literature to be compiled for publication as part of a topical series on gender and pain in the Frontiers in Pain Research.

Results

While transgender individuals represent a significant and increasingly visible component of the population, many researchers and clinicians are not well informed about the diversity in gender identity, physiology, hormonal status, and gender-affirming medical procedures utilized by transgender and other gender diverse patients. Transgender and cisgender people present with many of the same medical concerns, but research and treatment of these medical needs must reflect an appreciation of how differences in sex, gender, gender-affirming medical procedures, and minoritized status impact pain.

Conclusions

While significant advances have occurred in our appreciation of pain, the review indicates the need to support more targeted research on treatment and prevention of pain in transgender individuals. This is particularly relevant both for gender-affirming medical interventions and related medical care. Of particular importance is the need for large long-term follow-up studies to ascertain best practices for such procedures. A multi-disciplinary approach with personalized interventions is of particular importance to move forward.

Risk of suicide attempt with gender diversity and neurodiversity

There is growing concern about psychiatric illness co-occurring with gender-diversity and neurodiversity, including risk of suicidal behavior. We carried out systematic reviews of research literature pertaining to suicide attempt rates in association with gender- and neurodiversity, with meta-analysis of findings. Rates of suicidal acts ranked: gender-diverse versus controls (20.1% vs. 1.90%; highly significant) > autism spectrum disorder (4.51% vs. 1.00%; highly significant) > attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (7.52% vs. 4.09%; not significant). Attempt rates also were greater among controls who included sexual minorities (5.35% vs. 1.41%). The rate among male-to-female transgender subjects (29.1%) was slightly lower than in female-to-male subjects (30.7%), who also were encountered 24.3% more often. In sum, suicidal risk was much greater with gender-diversity than neurodiversity. Suicide attempts rate was somewhat greater among female-to-male transgender subjects. Available information was insufficient to test whether suicidal risk would be even greater among persons with both gender- and neurodiversity.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mental health by gender identity in the United States, 2019-2021

OBJECTIVE

To estimate the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their association with mental health outcomes in adulthood by gender identity.

METHODS

Data come from 2019 to 2021 US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, among 17 states collecting gender identity and ACEs. We estimated the prevalence of ACEs and used Poisson family regression to estimate the association between ACEs and mental health stratified by gender identity. Mental health was assessed as current frequent mental distress and lifetime depression diagnosis.

RESULTS

The sample included n = 141,615 adults, 556 of whom identified as gender minority (including transgender or gender non-binary). Gender minority respondents were 18% more likely [95% CI 8% to 29%, p < 0.01] to be exposed to 3 or more ACEs relative to cisgender respondents. Among respondents exposed to 3 or more ACEs, gender minority adults were 25% [95% CI 10% to 43%, p < 0.01] more likely to report current frequent mental distress and 26% [95% CI 14% to 40%, p < 0.01] more likely to report a lifetime depression diagnosis than their cisgender peers.

CONCLUSION

Using population-level data, we identified higher prevalence of ACEs among gender minority adults than cisgender adults, and greater associations of ACEs and adverse mental health in adulthood. The prevalence of current and lifetime adverse mental health outcomes increased with higher levels of ACE exposure among cisgender and gender minority respondents. Action by stakeholders at the community, health system, and legislative levels are needed to improve gender minority population health.

State Policies and Health Disparities between Transgender and Cisgender Adults: Considerations and Challenges Using Population-Based Survey Data

CONTEXT

The authors examined the association between state-level policy protections and self-rated health disparities between transgender and cisgender adults.

METHODS

They used data on transgender (n = 4,982) and cisgender (n = 1,168,859) adults from the 2014-2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. The authors estimated state-specific health disparities between transgender and cisgender adults, and they used multivariable logistic regression models to compare adjusted odds ratios between transgender and cisgender adults by state-level policy environments.

FINDINGS

Transgender adults were significantly more likely to report poor/fair health, frequent mental distress, and frequent poor physical health days compared to cisgender adults. Disparities between transgender and cisgender adults were found in states with strengthened protections and in states with limited protections. Compared to transgender adults in states with limited protections, transgender adults in states with strengthened protections were marginally less likely to report frequent mental distress.

CONCLUSIONS

Transgender adults in most states reported worse self-rated health than their cisgender peers. Much more research and robust data collection on gender identity are needed to study the associations between state policies and transgender health and to identify best practices for achieving health equity for transgender Americans.