Metabolic and functional changes in transgender individuals following cross-sex hormone treatment: Design and methods of the GEnder Dysphoria Treatment in Sweden (GETS) study.

Background: Although the divergent male and female differentiation depends on key genes, many biological differences seen in men and women are driven by relative differences in estrogen and testosterone levels. Gender dysphoria denotes the distress that gender incongruence with the assigned sex at birth may cause. Gender-affirming treatment includes medical intervention such as inhibition of endogenous sex hormones and subsequent replacement with cross-sex hormones.