It Might Take Time: A Study on the Evolution of Quality of Life in Individuals With Gender Incongruence During Gender-Affirming Care

Abstract

The distress caused by gender incongruence has been shown to be reduced with gender-affirming care. The current study follows a cohort of patients that requested gender-affirming care at Ghent University Hospital and examines the outcome of the procedures. The prospective design with 4 assessment times allows the study to assess the evolution of self-reported quality of life (QoL) and gender incongruence throughout a medical transition process. All the participants (N=119) received hormone therapy, 52% underwent a separate gonadectomy (N=62), and 41% vaginoplasty or phalloplasty (N=49). The results suggest that gender incongruence improves after surgery. QoL has slightly different trends for the different gender groups: compared to people who were assigned male at birth (AMAB), people who were assigned female at birth (AFAB) report lower QoL after gonadectomy. Meeting other transgender people facilitate QoL after starting hormone therapy. A higher number of friends after genital surgery are predictive of a better QoL. These results may be useful for clinicians working with transgender patients, as they provide information collected assessing patients soon after surgery and may raise awareness regarding the specific clinical attention that postsurgery patients need. QoL can be compromised after the invasive surgery, while gender incongruence is alleviated throughout the transition. Our results should be confirmed with other prospective study designs that include a longer follow-up period. Pavanello Decaro S, Van Gils S, Van Hoorde B, et al. It Might Take Time: A Study on the Evolution of Quality of Life in Individuals With Gender Incongruence During Gender-Affirming Care. J Sex Med 2021;18:2045-2055.