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closeWaiting for clarifications from the editors, given all that we know on the effects of estrogen
Posted by mbabu on 05 Feb 2023 at 17:39 GMT
That estrogen does not work among transgender patients assigned male at birth has been replicated in January in the New England Journal of Medicine (https://www.nejm.org/doi/...) - the abstract hides the finding, but it is clearly mentioned in the main paper ("Depression and anxiety scores decreased among youth designated female at birth but not among those designated male at birth. Similarly, T scores for life satisfaction increased among youth designated female at birth but not among those designated male at birth."). We also know from longer-term clinical studies that the euphoric effects are ephemeral at best (https://www.mdpi.com/2077...).
The finding about estrogen is made even more important since we know that feminization treatment in adult male rats mimics brain changes observed in trans women (https://www.sciencedirect...): estrogen treatment reduced the brain's astrocytes' water content and brain volume. That same research also shows that pharmacological doses of estradiol decrease brain cortical volume and increase the concentration of glutamate and glutamine in the brains of those adult male rats (which, as is well established, is associated with such diseases as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Huntington’s disease https://my.clevelandclini...). And finally, estradiol plus cyproterone acetate (a testosterone blocker) decreased the brain cortical volume in those adult rats.
It has been shown that the brains of depressed suicide victims had markedly reduced densities of astrocytes, compared to healthy brains, in parts of the prefrontal cortex (the brain’s executive), the caudate nucleus (which helps control goal-directed behavior), and the thalamus (which passes sensory information to the cortex).
To summarize, not only does estrogen not help psychologically, it increases the chances that the person will suffer from mental comorbidities down the line and quite possibly die much earlier (https://www.thelancet.com...(21)00185-6/fulltext and https://read.dukeupress.e...)
Given all that we know, PLOS One editors should clarify whether estrogen treatment is at all recommended for transwomen.