Nutrition research needed for “unique” transmasculine supplement use, study flags

26 Mar 2024 --- In a participatory research study conducted by graduate students and researchers from the nutrition faculty of George Mason University, Washington DC, US, they observed that transmasculine people use more dietary supplements on average than the general population. As a result, the team called for population-level research on the nutritional needs of transgender people.

The study defined transmasculine as people on the transgender and gender-nonbinary spectrum who were assigned female at birth. Transmasculine people reported an estimated 65% higher use of dietary supplements compared with 22.5% of the general US population, with 90% of the study participants claiming to have used supplements at some point.

“The lack of research on the nutritional needs of transgender people, including transgender or nonbinary transmasculine people navigating social or medical transitioning and the findings of this study highlight the need for population-level research that ensures that nutritional advice is appropriate for the affected communities,” says Kalman-Rome, first author on the paper.

Unique supplement use
A few of the leading dietary supplements used by the transmasculine people surveyed include multivitamins, melatonin, vitamin D, vitamin C, fish oil, B-vitamins or B-complex, iron and green tea. The reasons cited for taking the supplements were for “improving overall health” (60%) and “maintaining health” (54%), to “supplement my diet due to not getting enough from food”(42%), “mental health” (40%) and to “prevent colds, boost immune system” (33%).

Forty-eight transmasculine volunteers completed an online survey detailing their dietary supplement use, motivations and demographic information. General population data was taken from the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The unfunded research findings were published in the Journal of Dietary Supplements.

The study participants reported using nutritional supplements in unique ways compared to the general population, which can be observed in the number of supplements used on average, their reasons for taking them and the variety of supplements they take.

“It is important to understand the motivations and types of products being used by transmasculine people, as an increased risk of adverse events, due to use of exogenous testosterone, medications and other factors, may be present,” says Lilian de Jonge, interim chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, George Mason University and co-author of the study.Supplement use by transmasculine people is much higher than the average person. 

Health inequities in the demographic
More than one million people in the US identify as transgender; however, there is limited research on nutrition-related health outcomes for transgender people, the researchers state. To narrow the research gap, they investigated the common motivations for dietary supplement use in transmasculine people. 

According to the researchers, there are health inequities and disparities in nutrition research on transmasculine people. There is also a significant lack of information about dietary supplementation because sex and gender identity are poorly addressed in national surveys.

The core issues that need addressing are the differences in the types of products, the number of products used and specific motivations for use. Future nationally representative longitudinal studies are necessary to identify these patterns and to inform evidence-based nutrition guidance.

By Inga de Jong