Roles of Randomized Controlled Trials in Establishing Evidence-Based Gender-Affirming Care and Advancing Health Equity

Theodore E Schall; Kaitlyn Jaffe; Jacob D Moses

doi:10.1001/amajethics.2024.684

Roles of Randomized Controlled Trials in Establishing Evidence-Based Gender-Affirming Care and Advancing Health Equity

AMA J Ethics. 2024 Sep 1;26(9):E684-689. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2024.684.

Authors

Theodore E Schall¹, Kaitlyn Jaffe², Jacob D Moses³

Affiliations

¹ Assistant professor of health policy and management in the Department of Health Promotion and Policy in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
² Assistant professor of community health education in the Department of Health Promotion and Policy in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
³ Assistant professor of bioethics and health humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

PMID: 39250939
DOI: 10.1001/amajethics.2024.684

Abstract

This article reviews the design of a recently published randomized controlled trial (RCT) on immediate vs delayed access to gender-affirming hormones for transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) people and outlines key learning points that clinicians should know about how RCTs can and cannot contribute to advancing health equity for TGD people.

MeSH terms

Evidence-Based Medicine
Female
Gender-Affirming Care
Health Equity*
Humans
Male
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic* / ethics
Research Design
Transgender Persons*