Effects of treating gender dysphoria and anorexia nervosa in a transgender adolescent: Lessons learned
Abstract
Patients with gender dysphoria and patients with eating disorders often experience discontent with their bodies. Several reports have recognized the co-occurrence of these two conditions, typically in adults who identify as transgender females and desire a more feminine physique. This case report, in contrast, describes a 16-year-old patient with a female sex assigned at birth who first presented with features consistent with anorexia nervosa and later revealed underlying gender dysphoria with a drive for a less feminine body shape. We discuss both the path to recognizing gender dysphoria in this patient as well as the impact of treatment on his eating disorder and overall well-being. This case is one of only a few reports describing a female-to-male transgender patient with an eating disorder and is the first to explore the effects of hormone and surgical intervention in an adolescent patient.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Similar intentions were reported in previous case studies, in which TGAs' disordered eating developed not out of a general fear of weight gain, but specifically to alter or delay expression of secondary sex characteristics.
“Similar intentions were reported in previous case studies, in which TGAs’ disordered eating developed not out of a general fear of weight gain, but specifically to alter or delay expression of secondary sex characteristics (Couturier et al., 2015; Strandjord et al., 2015).”
From Exploring transgender adolescents’ body image concerns and disordered eating: Semi-structured interviews with nine gender minority youth (2021) · cites this paper as Strandjord et al., 2015
Previous case studies have also found TGAs restricting intake to conform to gender norms as well as to minimize secondary sex characteristics.
“Previous case studies have also found TGAs restricting intake to conform to gender norms (Gordon et al., 2016) as well as to minimize secondary sex characteristics (Couturier et al., 2015; Strandjord et al., 2015).”
From Exploring transgender adolescents’ body image concerns and disordered eating: Semi-structured interviews with nine gender minority youth (2021) · cites this paper as Strandjord et al., 2015
When the adolescents in these prior cases began hormone therapy or puberty blockers, they experienced improvement in body image and a reduction in disordered eating behaviors.
“when the adolescents in these prior cases began hormone therapy or puberty blockers, they experienced improvement in body image and a reduction in disordered eating behaviors.”
From Exploring transgender adolescents’ body image concerns and disordered eating: Semi-structured interviews with nine gender minority youth (2021) · cites this paper as Strandjord et al., 2015
Previous case studies have shown that TGAs may not express gender identity concerns to treatment providers until weight restoration occurs.
“Previous case studies have similarly shown that TGAs may not express gender identity concerns to treatment providers until weight restoration occurs (Couturier et al., 2015; Strandjord et al., 2015).”
From Exploring transgender adolescents’ body image concerns and disordered eating: Semi-structured interviews with nine gender minority youth (2021) · cites this paper as Strandjord et al., 2015
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 20 · Cited by 85
- Authors
- Strandjord, S. E., Ng, H., & Rome, E. S.
- Affiliations
- Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine (US)
- MetroHealth Medical Center (US)
- Cleveland Clinic (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ng, Henry
- Venue
- International Journal of Eating Disorders
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2015-09-04
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 942-945
- ISSN
- 0276-3478 (ISSN-L)
- 1098-108X
- OpenAlex
- W1804664818
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 5
- FWCI
- 4.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International Journal of Eating Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies
- Keywords
- gender dysphoria, anorexia nervosa, transgender youth, eating disorder treatment, hormone therapy, gender-affirming surgery, body dissatisfaction, youth welfare
- MeSH terms
- Gender Dysphoria, Adolescent, Anorexia Nervosa, Female, Humans, Male, Transgender Persons
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
