Professor Gillian Einstein has been awarded a three-year grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) to support research on the long-term effects of gender affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) on cognition and self-perceived aging in transfeminine people.
“Self, Memory, and Brain Aging in Transfeminine Persons,” is led by Einstein and co-investigator Reubs Walsh, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto. It is a mixed methods study that uses data from qualitative interviewing, neuropsychological testing, brain imaging, cortisol, and biomarker measures.
“This grant allows us to add another comparator population, transfeminine persons not taking GAHT,” Einstein says. In addition, they will be able to measure blood markers of senescence—the process of cell deterioration with age—including inflammation, p-tau, and a-beta. The presence of these markers has been used to identify some of the earliest timepoints prior to late-life dementia as well as physiological stress and inflamation. Einstein and Walsh are measuring them to understand how sexual minority stigma might correlate with physiological signs of memory problems.
“We hope to provide transfeminine persons with more information about the long-term cognitive and brain effects, positive and negative, of their treatments as well as add to our understanding of how stigma can affect brain health,” Einstein says.
Einstein leads the Einstein Lab, which works with groups of women, men, and gender-diverse individuals to explore how their brains and behaviour react and respond when they experience sex-specific health conditions, medical treatments, or social practices. She also holds the Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women’s Brain Health and Aging.
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