Health of Transgender Women: Gynecological, Hormonal, Sexual and Psychological Management

healthtransgenderwomenkapak

FERTILITY IN TRANSGENDER WOMEN AND ITS REGULATION

Merve Demir1
Çağcıl Yetim2

1Bahçeşehir University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, İstanbul, Türkiye
2Medicana Ataköy Hospital, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, İstanbul, Türkiye

Demir M, Yetim Ç. Fertility in Transgender Women and Its Regulation. Balsak D, Aksin Ş, eds. Health of Transgender Women: Gynecological, Hormonal, Sexual and Psychological Management. 1st ed. Ankara: Türkiye Klinikleri; 2025. p.183-195.

ABSTRACT

Gender-affirming surgeries and hormonal interventions in transgender individuals can lead to infertility and subfertility. To prevent this, fertility preservation methods can be applied to transgender individuals. Fertility preservation options should be offered to these individuals before both hormonal treatments and surgical interventions. Fertility preservation in transgender women can be achieved by cryopreservation of sperm or testicular tissue. Although sperm cryopreservation is widely practiced, testicular tissue cryopreservation is still experimental. Strategies that may contribute to fertility in transgender women in the future include in vitro gametogenesis, uterine transplantation, ovarian tissue transplantation, artificial womb technology (ectogenesis), 3D bioprinting of uterus and ovaries, and development of microfluidic biological devices that mimic uterine and ovarian functions.

Keywords: Transgender women; Fertility preservation; Sperm cryopreservation; Testicular tissue cryopreservation; Uterine transplantation

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