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Abstract
Despite receiving Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy or Gender-Affirming Surgery, which may adversely impact their fertility, people with Gender Dysphoria (GD) may desire to form families. In this study, we aimed to quantitatively display fertility desire from the perspective of these individuals, despite all the legal challenges they face. The single center, cross-sectional comparative study included individuals with GD and cisgender volunteers. A Sociodemographic Data Form, the Fertility Desire Data Form, the Childbearing Motivations Scale and the Fertility Desire Scale were used. Of the 414 participants, 171 were individuals with GD (110 FtM; 61 MtF) and 243 were cisgender volunteers (142 cis-males; 101 cis-females). While 22% of the people with GD stated that they had regrets about not undergoing fertility preservation, 16% stated that they would like this process if it were legal. People with GD, particularly MtF, want to have children more than cisgenders. Moreover, people with MtF exhibited less negative motivations toward becoming parents, despite having reservations regarding the socioeconomic aspect of parenthood. Our findings indicate that fertility desire in people with GD is not less in comparison to cisgender people. Healthcare professionals should not forget to offer fertility preservation options as part of clinical practice before Gender-Affirming Therapy.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Availability of data and material
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Authors’ contributions
All authors made substantial contributions to the conception and design, and/or acquisition of data, and/or analysis and interpretation of data; participated in drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and gave final approval of the version to be submitted.
Ethical approval
The study was approved by the local ethics committee of the *** Medical Faculty (Decision No: 11908 dated 20 Jan 2021). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Funding
The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.