This communication (e-poster) was presented at the ESPE/ESE 2025 Joint Congress (ECEESPE2025), “Connecting Endocrinology Across the Life Course”. The work, by a Portuguese team (University of Coimbra), investigated the role of hypothalamic subregions in transgender people who have not yet received gender-affirming hormone therapy (therapy-naïve).
Method
Forty participants were recruited (34 included in the final analysis: 9 cisgender men, 10 cisgender women, 9 transgender men and 6 transgender women; mean age ~24–25 years). Structural 3T MRI images were obtained and the hypothalamic subunits were automatically segmented with FreeSurfer. Pituitary hormone levels were also measured.
Main finding
Transgender women showed a significantly larger volume of the left tubular infundibular hypothalamic subregion (153.6±15.50 mm³) compared with transgender men (121.2±18.44 mm³). A strong negative correlation (r=-0.872, p=0.024) was also observed between that volume and total testosterone levels in transgender women.
The authors interpret the result as a possible neuroanatomical correlate of interest in this population, related to circuits involved in reproductive and sexual behaviour (e.g. kisspeptin, expressed in the infundibulum), and they note the need for further research into its role in gender identity.
Bibliographic reference: Lages A, d’Almeida OC, Tacikowski P, Rodrigues G, Paiva S, Ruas L, Gomes L, Castelo-Branco M. Neuroanatomical insights into gender identity: the role of hypothalamic subregions in therapy-naïve transgender individuals. Endocrine Abstracts (2025) 110 EP1364. DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.110.EP1364
Read the publication: Abstract in Endocrine Abstracts (ECEESPE2025)
