Antonio Guillamón Fernández
Professor emeritus of Psychobiology
The press release only reports the authors' enthusiastic opinion, but the study is based on a well-executed longitudinal design. The work replicates what was already known in adult transmasculine and transfeminine individuals with simpler and less powerful designs.
The study is well controlled. Only one aspect strikes me: that the differences between transmasculine and transfeminine individuals with respect to anxiety and depression are attributed only to environmental factors when they should also take into account that variables linked to the well-known gender differences in anxiety and depression may be involved.
The study supports the use of hormone treatment immediately after puberty. It appears that boys who received hormone blockers earlier respond better to this treatment.