Participation of transgender and gender diverse persons in cardiovascular clinical trials

Study objective: Transgender persons face increased risk in developing cardiovascular diseases due to administration of hormonal therapy used for gender expression, or due to the presence of other risk factors, such as minority stress and difficulty to have full access to health care. Even though the need for gender diversity in research has been identified, the number of clinical trials including transgender persons remains low. The aim of this study was to highlight gaps in inclusion of transgender individuals in cardiovascular clinical research. Design, setting: A search in the pubmed.com database, as well as in the clinicaltrials.gov repository, was performed with search terms regarding transgender persons and cardiovascular diseases. Main outcome measure(s): The inclusion of transgender persons in cardiovascular clinical trials was evaluated. Results and conclusions: This study revealed that there is only a small number of cardiovascular clinical trials including or studying transgender persons. This finding demonstrates the overall lack of clinical trials regarding cardiovascular health in transgender individuals and is indicative of their under-representation in clinical research.