ArticleThe Yale journal of biology and medicine2025
Tracking Epigenetic Biomarkers of Health and Aging During the Initial Year of Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy.
Article in The Yale journal of biology and medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) is a necessary treatment for many transgender people, and there is a critical need to further improve treatment experience and mitigate possible risks. Here we investigated whether DNA methylation (DNAm) biomarkers of health and aging are modified during the first year of GAHT and whether these vary by treatment type. Cohort consisted of 13 trans women (TW) and 13 trans men (TM). Sampling occurred at baseline (pre-GAHT), and at 6- and 12-month follow-up. We tracked the longitudinal dynamics of three epigenetic clocks (Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge), DNA methylation-based telomere length (DNAmTL), and DunedinPACE. At baseline, the Horvath and Hannum showed accelerated epigenetic aging, particularly pronounced among TM, while the PhenoAge and DunedinPACE showed lower pace of aging in both groups. This discrepancy may reflect possible effects of minority stress in an otherwise healthy cohort. While GAHT did not affect the three clocks, DNAmTL and DunedinPACE showed treatment-specific patterns but with notable inter-individual variability in trajectories. TW had increased DunedinPACE (estimate = 0.057, p=0.002) and slight DNAmTL gains (estimate = 0.024, ns); TM exhibited stable to slight decline in DunedinPACE (estimate = -0.013, ns), and reduction in DNAmTL (estimate = -0.057, p=0.037). The marked heterogeneity is indicative of an individualized response to treatment and highlights the potential value of incorporating such biomarkers in comprehensive health monitoring. Our findings emphasize the need for larger, long-term studies to optimize personalized strategies for gender-affirming healthcare.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.