Stress Reactivity and Cognitive Functioning of Transgender and Gender Diverse People

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Sex hormones drive variability in biobehavioral responsivity to stress. To date, the stress reactivity of transgender (trans*) people has not been explored. This research avenue is critical to help scientists delineate stress and resilience processes among this highly marginalized group. Moreover, trans* people provide a unique lens from which to delineate the effect that biological sex, sex hormones, and socio-cultural gender-identity in relation to stress physiology and cognitive functioning. We aim to recruit trans* women and trans* men who will be compared to cisgender (gender-identity corresponds with birth-assigned sex) controls. All participants will be exposed to a laboratory stressor to induce endocrine and cardiovascular reactivity. In addition, cognitive functioning will be assessed to detect stress-related impairments in declarative memory as well as sexually dimorphic cognitive abilities. Detailed self-reports will complement salivary assessment of sex hormones (testosterone, estradiol, progesterone) of all participants to determine individual differences in vulnerability or resilience. We hypothesize that trans* people will exhibit stress reactive profiles and cognitive abilities typically observed for the gender they are transitioning towards rather than birth-assigned sex. We therefore expect that trans* men will react more like cisgender men while trans* women will react more like cisgender women. This project will provide preliminary data for future grant support to assess multi-systemic physiological dysregulations (allostatic load) and brain imaging of neural regions that regulate stress reactivity and cognitive functioning such as the hippocampus, amygdala, and frontal cortex. By assessing how gender identity relates to stress physiology among trans* people, our novel research program will expand broader understanding of sex/gender modulation of stress and cognitive processes. This NSERC Discovery grant will support 5 BSc students, 2 MSc students (Years 2-5), and 2 PhD students (Years 1-5). NSERC support will expand the training opportunities for nationally and internationally recruited HQP coming from minority and majority backgrounds. To summarize, our objectives are to 1) assess endocrine (stress and sex hormones) and cardiovascular reactivity, 2) assess cognitive functioning, and 3) identify resilience factors among trans* people in contrast to a cisgender control group. Our research program is truly unique in Canada and has applications to minority and majority populations. NSERC support is an essential first step for CESAR into the study of how sex/gender modulates stress, cognition, and resilience.