A 16-year-old trans female patient presented to our Gender Health Program for gender-affirming care. Her intake evaluation revealed signs of hepatocellular injury and fibrosis concerning for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and she was referred to a Pediatric Hepatologist. Subsequent delays in initiating hormone therapy caused a decline in her mental health, and she began experiencing suicidal ideations. Gender-affirming hormone therapy has been shown to significantly reduce depressive symptoms and suicidal ideations in transgender and gender diverse youth, and studies in animal models suggest improvement in hepatic steatosis in response to estrogen. A multidisciplinary meeting with Gender Health, Psychiatry, and Hepatology appropriately weighed the benefits of life-saving hormone therapy and the possibility of an improvement in her comorbid liver condition with the risk of further liver damage from estrogen therapy. The teams and the patient agreed to start estradiol with subsequent resolution of laboratory and radiographic evidence of MASH.
Keywords: gender‐affirming hormone therapy (GAHT); metabolic dysfunction‐associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD); nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH); transgender and gender‐diverse youth (TGD).
© 2024 The Authors. JPGN Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.