Clinical Research Directory

Support for Transgender and Non-Binary Individuals Seeking Vaginoplasty Study

The STRIVE study is the first national randomized trial to focus on improving well-being, access to surgical care and other health outcomes for transgender and nonbinary (referred to as trans) people seeking genital gender-affirming surgery (GGAS). Trans people have gender identities that are different from the sex they were assigned at birth. Due to discrimination based on their gender identity in settings such as schools, the workplace, housing and health care, trans people face much higher rates of distress as well as poorer health and quality of life. Trans people are often unable to access necessary surgeries and hormone therapy to help align their bodies with their gender identities due to a lack of trained medical providers and limited insurance coverage for gender-affirming care. The most common GGAS that trans people seek is vaginoplasty, which is the surgical creation of vaginal anatomy. Because of the high demand for this surgery and limited number of medical centers that offer it, trans people face lengthy wait times and complicated health system processes, increasing stress, negative mental health effects and social isolation. Social and peer-support interventions have been shown to decrease isolation and improve health. Social support during the GGAS process was also identified by the Transgender and Non-Binary Surgery - Allied Research Collective (TRANS-ARC) as the top research priority. Due to limited information on this topic, the STRIVE study was developed to meet this need. The research team's goals are to: * Compare the effectiveness of two approaches to presurgical preparation for vaginoplasty: a virtual group-based peer support intervention led by trans peers who have had GGAS, or usual care delivered by gender-affirming surgical teams, enhanced with patient education materials. * Determine if the intervention improves meeting presurgical criteria for vaginoplasty. * Evaluate if patients, peer supporters and healthcare staff find the intervention acceptable. The research team will conduct a pragmatic randomized controlled trial, meaning participants will be assigned by chance to one of two groups: peer-support group or usual care enhanced with written and web-based education materials. This study is pragmatic because it is happening under real-life conditions to understand if the intervention will work in practice. The research team will work with five academic gender-affirming surgery programs across the country to recruit and enroll 290 trans adults ages 18 and older who are seeking vaginoplasty. Participants assigned to the peer support group will receive the intervention virtually over the course of three months, facilitated by peer facilitators trained in collaboration with Trans Lifeline. The usual care group will receive education from their gender-affirming surgical team, with in-depth materials that cover the same topics as the virtual course. The primary outcome to be measures at six months is coping self-efficacy, reported by patients, using a survey which assesses perceived ability to deal with stressors. The research team will explore additional outcomes at 12 months, including meeting GGAS presurgical criteria and other outcomes deemed important to trans community partners, surgeons and other gender-affirming providers (e.g., psychological stress, social support, resilience, quality of life, presurgical knowledge, surgical delays and cancellations). Postsurgical outcomes, including surgical satisfaction and other related outcomes, will be measured at 24 months. Finally, the team will conduct in-depth interviews with participants who undergo the intervention to understand their experiences at the beginning of the study and after six months. Researchers will also interview peer supporters and clinicians to understand how to improve and implement the support intervention more broadly. In designing this study, the research team worked closely with trans community members and patients, health services and policy researchers, gender-affirming surgeons, advocates, gender program administrators and representatives from social support organizations. Collaboration with and input from the trans community during the conduct of this study will be critical to ensure that the STRIVE study is patient centered. Results from this study will be shared in multiple forms, including clinical guideline recommendations, policy briefs, patient-centered reports, web-based information and summaries for clinicians and researchers. Trans people seeking gender-affirming surgery can use the study findings to understand options for social support to improve quality of life and health outcomes. Clinicians, gender program administrators, health insurance companies and health policy advisors can use the findings from this study to better support and prepare patients who are seeking gender-affirming surgery.

The Role of Amnion Membrane Allografts in Nipple Preservation

The overall objective of this proposal is to conduct a randomized-controlled study to determine whether treatment with dehydrated human amnion/chorion membrane (dHACMs) allografts can improve NAC viability in patients undergoing nipple sparing mastectomy (NSM). dHACM allografts are commercially available tissue membranes with biocompatible extracellular matrix and growth factors that have been shown to improve wound healing in patients with chronic and lower extremity wounds. To date, no study has evaluated the impact of dHACMs on NAC preservation following NSM. Investigators hypothesize that subareolar surgical implantation of dHACM allografts at time of NSM will reduce NAC necrosis and improve viability.

Evaluating Sexual Functioning in Trans Men During the Gender Affirmation Process: A Mixed Methods Study

Both sexual experiences and the process of gender transition initiated to reduce gender dysphoria carry cultural characteristics. Gender categories, societal expectations for each gender, and attitudes toward sexual minorities in a given society can shape the lived experiences of trans individuals. Therefore, research on individuals with gender dysphoria in different cultural contexts is of great importance. To our knowledge, no study in Türkiye has examined sexual functioning in trans individuals undergoing gender transition. For this reason, our study aimed to investigate how sexual functioning is affected by the gender transition process in trans men with gender dysphoria, using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

HISTOLOGICAL RESULTS IN TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUALS ASSIGNED TO FEMALES AT BIRTH UNDERGOING GENDER AFFIRMATION SURGERY AND IN TESTOSTERONE THERAPY

The aim of this study is to report histological results of genital organs removed during gender affirmg surgery in transgender people assigned female at birth (AFAB), to increase the knowledge about the long-term effects of gender affirming hormone therapy with testosterone on these organs and to evaluate the incidence of benign and malign gynecological pathology in AFAB transgender people.