Transgender Hormone Drugs Linked to Cancer
introduced legislation to limit treatment for young people who identify as transgender.Among the messages is one, dated February 24, 2022, in which a person—identified by the report as a doctor—said a colleague developed hepatocarcinomas, or liver tumors, after eight to 10 years of taking testosterone."To the best of my knowledge, it was linked to his hormonal treatment," the message said. "Unfortunately I don't have much more details since it was so advanced that he opted for palliative care and died a couple months after."Newsweek could not independently verify the authenticity of the messages, which appear in the report as screenshots and printouts, and many have names redacted.
WPATH was contacted via email for comment Tuesday.A potential link between testosterone—which regulates pubic development, and which biological males produce naturally more than females—and liver cancer has been noted before.A 2020 paper published in The Lancet detailed one case in which a 17-year-old transgender man developed liver tumors after taking testosterone.
The patient was advised to stop taking testosterone, and the study said the relationship between the hormone and the tumor growth was unknown.Another study, published in October, found cases in which transgender individuals receiving hormone therapies developed liver tumors, but it said the results were "not sufficient to conclude that there is an association" between the two.Gender-affirming hormone therapies have also been linked to other forms of cancer—though research has so far been inconclusive.A 2019 study of transgender adults in Amsterdam found there was an "increased risk of breast cancer in trans women" who had received hormone therapy compared to biological men.However, last year, another study in the U.S.
