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Transgender Cardiovascular Health: Practical Management for the Clinician

  • Women and Ischemic Heart Disease (J.M. Peña and F. Lin, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Atherosclerosis Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Transgender individuals represent a growing part of our population with current trends indicating that clinicians will be treating more transgender patients in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. Current cardiovascular guidelines lack recommendations for transgender care secondary to limited data in this population. As we await future guideline recommendations, we provide a comprehensive review of the literature and practical management strategies related to transgender cardiovascular health.

Recent Findings

Transgender individuals are at higher risk for some cardiovascular diseases compared to their cisgender counterparts. Gender-affirming hormone therapy, concomitant health conditions, lifestyle habits, access to services, and quality of care all contribute to this finding.

Summary

While it is likely both safe and appropriate to apply current CVD guidelines to the care of transgender men and women, clinicians should consider additional factors in risk assessment and address unique aspects of care at every visit.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiology, Northwell Health, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, NY, USA

    Caroline Ong, Sadiya Thermidor, Marwen Eid & Eugenia Gianos

  2. Northwell Health, Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, USA

    Caroline Ong, Minghao Liu, Sadiya Thermidor, Marwen Eid & Eugenia Gianos

  3. Department of Endocrinology, Northwell Health, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, NY, USA

    Minghao Liu

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Correspondence to Caroline Ong.

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Eugenia Gianos reports the following disclosures: moderator for Kaneka, research grant from AstraZeneca, and Faculty for CME activity for Med-IQ. The other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Ong, C., Liu, M., Thermidor, S. et al. Transgender Cardiovascular Health: Practical Management for the Clinician. Curr Atheroscler Rep 24, 721–730 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11883-022-01047-1

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