19th International Headache Congress of International-Headache-Society, Dublin, İrlanda, 5 - 08 Eylül 2019, cilt.39, ss.85, (Özet Bildiri)
Gender dysphoria and headache Pinar Yalinay Dikmen1,*, Cagrı Cimentepe2 , Mahmut Kocoglu2 , Seda Kosak1 , Nese Direk Tecirli2 and Behice Elif Onur Aysevener2 1
Neurology, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar University, School of Medicine, Istanbul 2 Psychiatry, 9 Eylul University, Faculty of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey
Objective: Gender dysphoria is the distress a person
experiences as a result of the sex and gender they were
assigned at birth. The prevalence and demographics of
gender dysphoria vary according to geographical location
and has not been well-documented in Turkey. There are
also significant research gaps in headache and migraine’s
effect on transgender population. The aim of this study
was to search for headache incidence and type in people
with gender dysphoria (female-to-male) and association
between headache and hormone replacement therapy
(HRT).
Methods: A total of 50 patients (24.3 3.8) who were
diagnosed as gender dysphoria (female-to-male) and followed by Psychiatry Department of 9 Eylul University,
Faculty of Medicine, Turkey were recruited in the study.
Participants were asked whether they were currently
receiving hormone replacement therapy or not. All
patients filled out Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and
Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Headache was diagnosed
using a questionnaire which consisting of 40 questions
and assessed by a neurology specialist.
Results: Forty percent of the participants (n ¼ 20) were
currently receiving hormone replacement therapy, while
60% of the patients were not. The mean score of the
BDI and BAI were respectively, [(8.27 7.37);
(8,98 7,12)]. The patients were classified as a tension
type headache (TTH) (n ¼ 14, 28%) and migraine (n ¼ 28,
56%). Patients with TTH and migraine were mostly infrequent episodic type respectively, [(n ¼ 13, 93%) (n ¼ 24,
82%)]. The most common triggers for headache reported
by the patients were stress and sleep disturbances.
Twenty-two participants with migraine were currently
receiving hormone replacement therapy (61%) and 68.2
percent of them (n ¼ 15) reported that their headache
frequency did not change after starting hormone replacement therapy