Greater than 1 million people in the US discover as transgender; nevertheless, there is proscribed research on nutrition-related health outcomes for transgender people. To narrow the research gap, Mason MS, Nutrition student Eli Kalman-Rome investigated common motivations of dietary complement use in transmasculine people. The study defined transmasculine as people on the transgender and gender-nonbinary spectrum who were assigned female at birth. 

Transmasculine people reported a better use of dietary supplements (65%) in comparison with the whole U.S. population (22.5%), in response to the study. 90% of transmasculine participants reported using supplements in some unspecified time in the future of their life. 

“The dearth of research on the dietary needs of transgender people, including transgender/nonbinary transmasculine people navigating social or medical transitioning and the findings of this study highlight the necessity for population-level research that ensures that dietary advice is acceptable for the affected communities,” said Kalman-Rome, first creator on the paper. Associate Professor Kerri LaCharite Interim Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies Lilian de Jonge, and adjunct professor Taylor Wallace were co-authors on the paper. 

Transmasculine volunteers accomplished a web-based survey detailing dietary complement use, motivations, and demographic information. General population data was taken from the 20217-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. 

Transmasculine people reported using dietary supplements in unique ways as in comparison with the overall population; differences observed included the numbers of supplements used on average, participants’ reasons for taking supplements, and the range of supplements taken.

Top reported dietary supplements utilized by transmasculine people included multivitamins (52%), melatonin (52%), vitamin D (46%), vitamin C (35%), fish oil (33%), B-vitamins or B-complex (31%), iron (29%), and green tea (29%). Participants reported the highest reasons for dietary supplements included “improving overall health” (60.4%) and “maintaining health” (54.2%). 

It will be important to grasp the motivations and varieties of products getting used by transmasculine people, as an increased risk of opposed events, because of use of exogenous testosterone, medications, and other aspects, could also be present.”

Lilian de Jonge, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, George Mason University

“Dietary Complement Use in Transmasculine People: Results of an Online Survey of Volunteer Adults” was published online within the Journal of Dietary Supplements in February 2024. The study was not funded.