LGBTQ+

6187 readers

20 users here now

All forms of queer news and culture. Nonsectarian and non-exclusionary.

See also this community's sister subs Feminism, Neurodivergence, Disability, and POC

Beehaw currently maintains an LGBTQ+ resource wiki, which is up to date as of July 10, 2023.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

PSA May Be Insufficient to Detect Early Prostate Cancer in Transgender Women (ascopost.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Transgender women receiving hormone therapy may skew artificially low on prostate cancer screening tests, thereby providing false reassurance and potentially delaying diagnosis and treatment, according to a recent study published by Nik-Ahd et al in JAMA. The findings indicated that transgender women and physicians should interpret standard screening guidelines with caution.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I believe their logic is such (I'm not involved with the study, but have a background in medicine and research):

Elevated PSA (a blood test) signals prostate cancers.
PSA tests are relatively routine bloodwork with an assumption of uniform coverage across all patients, trans or not. PSA tests are presumed to uncover early cancer presentation. Therefore, if we're only seeing advanced cancer presentation in trans women, the PSA test is a poor screening device for early prostate cancer in that population.

Point 2 is a big assumption; I am ignorant if that would be a confounding variable in real life, or if that's even been studied.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

All I've got is anecdotes, but as I understand it, trans women are less likely to get prostate cancer in the first place. Personally, I don't know any trans women that have prostate cancer, and given how many older trans women I know, that suggests it's less common than you'd expect in cis men.

However, it could fit that those of us who do get prostate cancer are at a more severe level before it's detected. In my years in the trans community, the only times I've learned of trans women with prostate cancer is when it's been advanced. But those are all second hand stories and blogs/news articles etc.