Transgender Health and Cardiovascular Disease Risk: Future Directions for Research

The recent sociopolitical discourse has intensely scrutinized gender-affirming care for transgender people. Despite this attention, transgender health remains understudied, especially in the case of cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading global cause of death. While hormones influence CVD risk, the mechanisms, directionality, and extent are inadequately characterized. While not all transgender people pursue hormone therapy, they have a greater risk of developing CVD than cisgender people, regardless of hormone use. More outcomes research is urgently needed to identify the biopsychosocial determinants of CVD in collaboration with transgender communities to improve their cardiovascular health and, potentially, the health of the general population.