Hormone Therapy for Transgender Women

Sex steroid hormones play an important role in gender-confirming therapies of transgender women to modify the external physical appearance to align with gender identity. Most transgender women seeking gender-confirming surgeries will be taking gender-confirming sex steroid hormone therapy. Under medical supervision, hormone therapy appears to be safe with very low risk of complications [1]. However, some patients may be receiving hormone therapy without a prescription or routine medical monitoring which may lead to increased risk of complications [2]. Surgeons and physicians and other healthcare providers should understand and recognize the goals of gender-affirming hormone therapy and potential pitfalls during the pre-, peri-, and postoperative period of gender-confirming surgery which will be covered in this chapter.