Summary
Heart doctors at George Washington University analysed four years of a large US government health phone survey that asks about gender identity. Transgender people more often said they had ever had a heart attack. After allowing for standard risk factors, trans men reported one about 2.5 times as often as non-trans men and nearly 5 times as often as non-trans women. Trans women reported one more often than non-trans women, but not more than men. The survey does not ask about hormone treatment, when people transitioned, or when the heart attack happened. So the study cannot show that hormones, or anything else, caused the difference. It is an early warning sign worth investigating, and fits later studies that followed people over time and found more heart attacks in trans men than in women. It is not proof of cause.
Key findings
- El estudio usó cuatro años (2014–2017) de una encuesta telefónica de salud gestionada por los estados de EE. UU. que incluye preguntas opcionales sobre identidad de género.
- Antes del ajuste, el 7,2 % de los hombres trans y el 7,8 % de las mujeres trans dijo haber tenido un infarto, frente al 5,6 % de los hombres no trans y el 3,1 % de las mujeres no trans.
- Tras tener en cuenta la edad y los factores de riesgo cardíaco habituales, los hombres trans tenían unas 2,5 veces más probabilidades que los hombres no trans, y unas 4,9 veces más que las mujeres no trans, de informar de un infarto. El tamaño real de estas diferencias es muy incierto.
- Las mujeres trans tenían unas 2,5 veces más probabilidades que las mujeres no trans de informar de un infarto, pero no hubo una diferencia clara en comparación con los hombres no trans.
- La encuesta no tiene información sobre si las personas tomaban hormonas del sexo opuesto ni durante cuánto tiempo, por lo que los hallazgos no pueden atribuirse a las hormonas.
- Un editorial publicado junto al estudio (Chan, 2019) calificó los resultados de 'generadores de hipótesis como mucho', porque nadie sabe si los infartos ocurrieron antes o después de la transición.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: As of 2016, ≈1.4 million people in the United States identify as transgender. Despite their growing number and increasing specific medical needs, there has been a lack of research on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD risk factors in this population. Recent studies have reported that the transgender population had a significantly higher rate of CVD risk factors without a significant increase in overall CVD morbidity and mortality. These studies are limited by their small sample sizes and their predominant focus on younger transgender populations. With a larger sample size and inclusion of broader age range, our study aims to provide insight into the association between being transgender and cardiovascular risk factors, as well as myocardial infarction. METHODS AND RESULTS: The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 2014 to 2017 were used to evaluate the cross-sectional association between being transgender and the reported history of myocardial infarction and CVD risk factors. A logistic regression model was constructed to study the association between being transgender and myocardial infarction after adjusting for CVD risk factors including age, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, chronic kidney disease, smoking, and exercise. Multivariable analysis revealed that transgender men had a >2-fold and 4-fold increase in the rate of myocardial infarction compared with cisgender men (odds ratio, 2.53; 95% CI, 1.14-5.63; P=0.02) and cisgender women (odds ratio, 4.90; 95% CI, 2.21-10.90; P<0.01), respectively. Conversely, transgender women had >2-fold increase in the rate of myocardial infarction compared with cisgender women (odds ratio, 2.56; 95% CI, 1.78-3.68; P<0.01) but did not have a significant increase in the rate of myocardial infarction compared with cisgender men. CONCLUSIONS: The transgender population had a higher reported history of myocardial infarction in comparison to the cisgender population, except for transgender women compared with cisgender men, even after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors.
Conclusion
The transgender population had a higher reported history of myocardial infarction in comparison to the cisgender population, except for transgender women compared with cisgender men, even after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors. The authors speculate that minority stress and hormone therapy may contribute.