P107. COMPARISON OF CHEST FEMININITY OF TRANSGENDER WOMEN WITH HORMONE TREATMENT VS. SURGICALLY AUGMENTED WITH BREAST IMPLANTS

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study aims to assess whether lay individuals found surgically augmented breasts to be more feminine than breast development from hormone therapy in transgender patients. METHODS: We obtained pre-operative (maximal breast growth on hormone therapy) and post-operative (after primary augmentation) chest images of 22 transgender patients. Images were age and BMI matched with male (n=17) and female controls (n=21). Survey participants (n=271; 179 male, 91 female, 1 non-binary; 74 transgender, 193 not transgender, 4 prefer not to answer) each evaluated 20 randomly selected images. The average femininity of each chest image (1=very feminine; 5=very masculine) determined by participants was analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey’s method. RESULTS: Transgender survey respondents rated every image group more masculine than non-transgender respondents, except for male controls. The mean scores of each image group were significantly different between transgender and non-transgender respondents, except for preoperative transgender patients. There was a significant difference in mean femininity score between all image types. Mean score for transgender patients fell by 0.478 points after surgery (p<0.0001); subgroup analysis looking at only transgender participant revealed the same significance trend postoperatively. Transgender respondents also found no difference in femininity between female controls and postoperative transgender patients (p= 0.132). CONCLUSION: Breast augmentation significantly increased the perception of femininity. Transgender participants rated the images as more masculine compared to their non-transgender counterparts.