Screening for sleep apnoea risk in testosterone-treated transgender men

Bára Šnobrová; Kristina Burdová; Vladimír Weiss; Karel Šonka; Petr Weiss

doi:10.3389/fneur.2023.1289429

Screening for sleep apnoea risk in testosterone-treated transgender men

Front Neurol. 2023 Dec 4:14:1289429. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1289429. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Bára Šnobrová¹, Kristina Burdová¹, Vladimír Weiss², Karel Šonka¹, Petr Weiss^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology and Centre of Clinical Neuroscience, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, Prague, Czechia.
² Department of Endocrinology, Poliklinika Modrany, Prague, Czechia.
³ Institute of Sexology, General University Hospital, Prague, Czechia.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.

Abstract

Introduction: Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is more prevalent in men. Several studies suggested that higher testosterone levels were associated with a greater risk of OSA. We aimed to determine whether testosterone administration in transgender men would accentuate symptoms of OSA.

Methods: The study involved 94 adult people undergoing a female-to-male transition with testosterone administration. The participants answered the Berlin Questionnaire (BQ) and a separate question on snoring before starting testosterone treatment and after at least 1 year of being on testosterone treatment.

Results: A higher proportion of participants at the follow-up answered positively to the first category of BQ devoted to snoring. A lower proportion of participants at follow-up answered positively to the second category of BQ devoted to tiredness. The percentage of subjects with a high risk of sleep apnoea, according to BQ, and of those who answered the question on snoring positively did not change significantly.

Conclusion: An increased number of transgender men who reported snoring in BQ after testosterone administration indicate a higher risk of OSA development.

Keywords: Berlin Questionnaire; sleep apnoea; snoring; testosterone; transgender men.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The study was supported by Programme EXCELES, ID Project No. LX22NPO5107 and financed by European Union—Next Generation EU and General University Hospital in Prague, Czech Republic (project no. MH CZ-DRO-VFN64165).