SynthesisANZ journal of surgery2025
Do hormones and surgery improve the health of adults with gender incongruence? A systematic review of patient reported outcomes.
Synthesis in ANZ journal of surgery, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Facial Gender-Confirmation Surgery: A Systematic Mapping Review of Surgical Growth and Outcome Gaps.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Pooled it
- Establishing a Transgender Outpatient Clinic Within the Gynaecology Department: a Retrospective Analysis of the First Few Years.Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde · 2026Article
- Behavioral Health Assessments and Surgical Readiness Letters for Gender-affirming Surgery: Current Literature, Standards of Care, and Practical Guidance.Current psychiatry reports · 2026Review
- Gender-affirming health care needs, barriers to care, and health and wellbeing in a broad nationwide sample of transgender people in Norway.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Author reply to McDonough.Internal medicine journal · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGender diverse people in Australia have higher levels of psychological stress, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts and have poorer self-reported health than cisgender people.
objectivesTo determine if adults who experience gender incongruence have improved health-related quality of life and mental health with gender affirming treatment (hormone therapy and surgery), compared with no treatment. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and Psych Info. REVIEW
methodsA systematic review of peer-reviewed publications in English from January 2010 to October 2022. Studies were included where: participants were treated with gender affirming surgery or hormone therapy for minimum 3 months and; validated patient reported outcome measures of health-related quality of life or mental health were reported. Quality of evidence assessment was undertaken using the Let Evidence Guide Every New Decision evaluation tool.
resultsEighty-one publications were included for analysis. The systematic review indicated that there were significant improvements in the domains of mental illness, gender dysphoria, body image and health-related quality of life following gender affirming medical treatment as measured by a variety of patient reported outcomes. Meta-analysis showed significant improvement in body image (z = 4.47, P < 0.001) and health-related quality of life for psychological (z = 1.99, P = 0.047) and social relationships (z = 3.09, P = 0.002) following gender affirming surgery.
conclusionsThere is evidence that hormones and surgery as a collective for adults with gender incongruence has therapeutic value and should be considered for funding within Australia's healthcare systems. The development and implementation of patient-reported outcome tools tailored for purpose (GENDER Q) will facilitate future research.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.