The project I am working is on the impacts of gender affirming hormone therapy on fertility and endocrine function through the use of a mouse model. I am more involved in the day to day work of the testosterone, or T-GAHT, model than the estradiol, or E-GAHT, model. We’ve been collecting cytology data in order to do imaging and determining the impacts of testosterone on the menstrual cycle. We have also done a great deal of tissue collection of the pups born to the T-GAHT washout group. We are looking at the kidneys, livers, and ovaries of these animals to test for different hormone levels and other organ functions. I have learned a great deal in the lab including using the microtome, collecting cytology, weaning mouse pups, imaging, using the scope, staining tissue, and observing and assisting in rodent surgery. This research could have an incredible impact on the transgender and gender diverse community because many choose to partake in gender affirming hormone therapy, and there is little research currently done on its impacts on the body. From personal experience, I was told that they were not sure how testosterone would affect my fertility or liver function. They had to warn me about the unknowns of hormone therapy before I was permitted to begin. This also opens the door to more trans research because there are many other aspects of medically transitioning that are unknown or minimally studied. Normalizing this type of research will drastically change the understanding of medical needs of the transgender and gender diverse community. Ethics comes to play in this project in two main areas. First, a mouse model is used, so strict training and regulation is done to minimize the harm done to the animals. There are precautions taken to prevent using any more animals than absolutely necessary and that the animals do not experience pain throughout the experiment. Second, the language used when writing about this type of research is critical because it needs to be inclusive. Trans research should be centered around the needs of the trans community, and every gender diverse individual should feel included with the language.
