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Semen cryopreservation viable for young transgender patients in small study
Key clinical point: Fertility preservation with semen cryopreservation is viable for adolescent and young adult transgender women.
Major finding: Eight of eleven patients cryopreserved semen before beginning gender-affirming treatment or after ceasing leuprolide acetate therapy.
Study details: The findings are based on a retrospective cohort study of 11 feminizing transgender patients between 2015 and 2018.
Disclosures: The research did not use external funding, and the authors had no disclosures.
Citation:
Barnard EP et al. Pediatrics. 2019 Aug 5. doi: 10.1542/peds.2018-3943.
The lack of long-term data on various gender-affirming medical interventions, particularly hormone therapies, for transgender adolescents and young adults has led professional medical organizations to recommend patients receive fertility counseling before beginning any such therapies.
Yet few data exist on fertility preservation either. The study by Barnard et al. is the first to examine semen cryopreservation outcomes in adolescents and young adults assigned male at birth and asserting a female gender identity.
“There is often urgency to start medical affirming interventions (MAI) among transgender and gender-diverse adolescents and young adults (TGD-AYA) due to gender dysphoria and related psychological sequelae,” wrote Jason Rafferty, MD, MPH, in an accompanying editorial. “However, starting MAI immediately and delaying fertility services may lead to increased overall morbidity for some patients.”
Although multiple professional organizations recommend fertility counseling before MAI initiation, many transgender patients are not following this advice. Dr. Rafferty noted one study found only 20% of TGD-AYA discussed fertility with their physicians before beginning MAI, and only 13% discussed possible effects of MAI on fertility – yet 60% wanted to learn more.
“Barnard et al. review data suggesting TGD-AYA have low interest in fertility services, but many TGD-AYA questioned whether this may later change,” Dr. Rafferty wrote. “After starting MAIs, TGD-AYA report being more emotionally capable of considering future parenting because of increasing comfort with their bodies and romantic relationships.”
Various barriers also exist for TGD-AYA interested in fertility services, such as cost, lack of insurance coverage, low availability of services, increased dysphoria from the procedures, stereotypes, stigma, and interest in starting MAI as soon as possible.
“Under a reproductive justice framework, autonomy around family planning is a right that should not be limited by structural or systemic barriers,” Dr. Rafferty wrote. “Overall, there is a clinical and ethical imperative to better understand and provide access to fertility services for TGD-AYA.”
Jason Rafferty, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician and child psychiatrist who practices at the gender and sexuality clinic in Riverside and at the Adolescent Healthcare Center at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, R.I. His comments are summarized from an accompanying editorial (Pediatrics 2019 Aug 5. doi: 10.1542/peds.2019-2000).