Research Highlights & Webinars for the Community
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Binding
What Did We Do?
We wanted to learn more about transmasculine people's feelings about chest-binding. We also wanted to learn about their experiences talking to their healthcare providers about binding. We wanted to talk to people who either had or wanted to have chest surgery. In 2016, we recruited transmasculine people living in the Baltimore area. Some of the ways we reached people were flyers, LGBTQ+ events, social media, word of mouth, and referrals through chest surgery providers.
Forty-four participants took a survey that asked them about their experiences binding. We asked questions about if they had ever bound, if they were binding now, how they bound, worries about how binding could affect their health, and health problems that might have been caused by binding.
Twenty-one participants were interviewed about binding. Interviewers asked about their gender identity and expression, why they wanted chest surgery, experiences accessing chest surgery, goals and worries about surgery, and experiences after surgery.
What Did We Learn?
About half of the participants said they had health problems from their binding. But they also said that the benefits of binding outweighed the issues. Binding improves mental health, so it's worth the health risks.
A lot of people said their doctors told them to stop binding because they didn't understand how important it is.
Unfortunately, it's hard for people to access high-quality and safe binders.
What Was New, Innovative, or Notable?
Our study found that binding had social and mental health benefits. People in the study were worried about how it would affect their health and said they needed more information on safer binding. This means it is important for health care providers to learn about safe binding practices and discuss them with their patients.
What Does This Mean for Our Communities?
Healthcare providers need to understand that binding improves mental health. This can help them support transmasculine people. Because this is so important, people who make health policies should consider making binders covered by healthcare. This would help make it easier for people to get gender-affirming care.
Source: "Chest binding practices and health impacts for transmasculine individuals: A mixed methods analysis" by Theo J. Beltran et al. (2025)
Estrogen & Heart Disease
What Did We Do?
We wanted to learn more about the relationships between stress, heart disease, and taking estrogen in Black and Latina trans women. We expected that transphobia, which causes stress, plays a role in the way that estrogen can increase the risk of heart disease.
We recruited 108 Black and Latina trans women living in Boston, New York, and DC between 2020 and 2022. They took surveys that asked them questions about things like health, medications, use of hormones, and stress. They also did some medical tests, like blood pressure, height, and weight. Participants had their blood drawn to look at labs that indicate stress. Some participants also took saliva samples, which we analyzed for stress hormones.
Based on all of these measurements, we calculated the risk of heart disease, and we created a score for the amount of stress held in the body. We ran statistical tests to see what the relationships were between hormone use, stress, and heart disease.
What Did We Learn?
We learned that for transgender women, taking estrogen may only increase the risk of heart disease if they have high levels of stress in the body.
Transgender women in this study who had low levels of stress in the body did not have higher risk of heart disease when they took hormones.
What Was New, Innovative, or Notable?
We know that chronic stress causes heart disease, and that taking estrogen can increase the risk of heart disease. But there hasn't been a lot of research into the relationship between all three. This study is unique because it looks at all three together to better understand them.
Also, a lot of research with trans communities focuses on health disparities without looking at what causes them and how to improve them. This study looks at how we can try to reduce the risk of heart disease for trans women.
What Does This Mean for Our Communities?
Our study is important because other studies have shown that taking estrogen might cause heart disease. This might make doctors worry about giving it to people. Our study shows that reducing the stress that transphobia causes, instead of withholding hormones, may be most important for lowering the risk of heart disease.
Doctors can help reduce the stress of transphobia. They can use people's correct names and pronouns, train their teams to care for trans people, and prescribe gender-affirming hormones, including estrogen.
Source: "Racial/ethnic differences in the association between transgender-related U.S. state policies and self-rated health of transgender women" by Wesley M. King et al. (2024).
Policy & Race
What Did We Do?
We wanted to understand how policies that protect transgender people might affect people differently. We thought it might depend on people's race or ethnicity. Other studies show that pro-transgender policies can help improve trans people's lives. However, many of the studies don't include a lot of of people of color.
Over 1,500 transgender women in 29 states fill out surveys that asked questions about their health. We also looked at the policies where the participants lived. The study included about half people of color and half white people. We ran statistical tests to see if the policies had a different effect on trans women of color compared with white trans women.
What Did We Learn?
We learned that the that positive transgender-related state policies may only benefit white trans women, not trans women of color. We think this is because the policies don't address how racism, not just transphobia, affects trans women of color.
For example, a policy that requires private health insurance to cover access to gender-affirming care might not help trans women of color. This is because systemic racism makes it harder for them to get private health insurance in the first place.
What Was New, Innovative, or Notable?
Most studies of policies that affect transgender people assume that the policies will affect all transgender people the same way. This study included enough trans people of color to be able to see if policies that are supposed to help all trans people only help some trans people.
What Does This Mean for Our Communities?
This is important because it shows that policies to protect trans health need to specifically also address racism. There are other kinds of polices that are related to trans health, and they also need to address racism. Some examples of these are housing, food access, employment, policing, prisons, and immigration.
Source: "Racial/ethnic differences in the association between transgender-related U.S. state policies and self-rated health of transgender women" by Wesley M. King et al. (2024)
Race, Sexuality, & Breast Cancer
What Did We Do?
We wanted to understand the experiences of Black queer cisgender (cis) women getting treatment for breast cancer. We know that Black women and queer women are both groups that have delays in treatment. So, we expected that Black queer cis women would have more delays than white heterosexual cis women
We recruited cis women who had had a diagnosis of breast cancer. We enrolled at least 100 cis women from each of four categories. The categories were: Black queer women, Black heterosexual women, white queer women, and white heterosexual women. Participants answered survey questions.
Some of the question topics were about their experience with their breast cancer diagnosis, reasons for delays in getting treatment, stigma, social support, and demographics.
What Did We Learn?
We learned that Black queer cis women were more likely to have delays in breast cancer treatment than white heterosexual cis women. They reported a lot of different barriers to getting care.
Black queer cis women also said they had experienced more stigma around breast cancer, and that they had less social support.
This suggests that stigma can make it harder for this group to get faster access to breast cancer treatment. It also shows that there is a need for more social support.
What Was New, Innovative, or Notable?
Not much research has been done to understand the experiences of Black queer cisgender women in breast cancer treatment.
Our study didn't just compare this group with other groups of women but also learned about some of the reasons for care delays. This is important because it can help us understand how to improve the delays.
What Does This Mean for Our Communities?
This study shows that there are changes we can make to make it easier for Black queer cis women to get access to breast cancer treatment. We can improve social support with support groups and patient navigation programs. It's also important for doctors to create environments that feel safe and welcoming for everyone.
Source: "Delays in Breast Cancer Care by Race and Sexual Orientation: Results From a National Survey With Diverse Women in the United States" by Tonia C. Poteat et al. (2021)
Webinars
