Three transgender veterans were diagnosed with cancer – here’s what they all had in common

Three transgender military veterans may have developed cancer after taking gender reassignment drugs, a report has found.

The patients were all born male but identified as female, and had recently been prescribed the hormone estrogen to make them more feminine.

They each had several risk factors that increased their risk of thyroid cancer, including smoking, obesity and radiation exposure.

But doctors who treated them said “it is conceivable” their hormone therapy played a role, based on previous research linking estrogen to tumor growth.

The doctors are now calling for transgender people to be warned about the risks of cancer from gender-affirming medicines.

The number of service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria increased from 1,892 in 2020 to 3,700 in 2024, Defense Health Agency data show.

The report appeared in the magazine earlier this year Endocrine and metabolic science by experts from the University of California Davis.

They wrote that while gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) with estrogen “is a cornerstone of treatment for transgender women… thyroid cancer has been linked to estrogens.

‘Physicians should be aware of this and discuss this with transgender women – in the context of limited data on thyroid cancer in this population – to eliminate health disparities.’

The experts suggested that the estrogen in the gender-affirming drugs may have caused malignant cells to grow in the thyroid gland, which could lead to cancerous tumors or benign masses becoming cancerous.

According to Defense Department data, the number of transgender members of the U.S. military has doubled from 1,800 to 3,700 since 2020.

This is less than one in 100 of the total active duty military personnel in the US.

The Williams Institute at UCLA estimates that a total of 15,500 transgender people serve in the U.S. military.

And Defense Health Agency figures show that over the past three years, $17.5 million in taxpayer money has been spent on psychotherapy for transgender people and $1.5 million has gone on hormone drugs.

Another $7.6 million financed gender confirmation surgeriesincluding facial modifications to make a recruit more masculine or feminine, and the removal or creation of breasts and genitals.

The report comes as thyroid cancer is expected to affect 44,000 patients and cause 2,100 deaths this year.

It is also one of the fastest growing cancers in America, which experts attribute to environmental factors such as exposure to “forever chemicals.”

All three patients in the case report were diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer, which accounts for approximately eight in 10 cases of thyroid cancer.

If caught early, more than nine in ten patients survive after five years. This drops to about half when the cancer spreads to other areas.

The first patient was 49 years old when diagnosed with cancer in 2002, five years after starting hormone replacement therapy.

In addition to receiving estrogen therapy, the patient also had “significant radiation exposure” as a result of helping clean up the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

The patient was also obese with a BMI of 32.

They had their thyroid removed in 2003 and later went into remission. They stopped estrogen therapy in 2008 and underwent breast reduction surgery two years later.

The patient resumed hormone replacement therapy in 2016.

The second patient was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer in 2011 at the age of 55. They had started hormone therapy three years earlier and in 2009 underwent vaginoplasty, an operation to create a vagina and vulva.

They had no family history or history of risk factors such as smoking or radiation exposure. However, they were obese with a BMI of 30.

The doctors noted that the patient was taking an “unknown total dose” of estrogen pills at the time of diagnosis.

The patient had his thyroid removed two months after diagnosis and had no recurrence. It is unclear whether they continued with gender-affirming care.

One of the most famous examples of transgender military personnel is Admiral Rachel Levine, a four-star officer sworn in as Admiral of the Public Health Services Commissioned Corps in 2021 (pictured here in 2022)

According to Defense Department data provided to DailyMail.com, $17.5 million has been spent on psychotherapy, $1.5 million on hormone therapy and $7.6 million on gender-affirming surgeries since 2020.

A recent analysis of more than 400 cases has revealed the most serious side effects and reactions experienced by patients undergoing hormone therapies

The third patient was 64 when diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2017, just three months after starting estrogen therapy.

However, doctors had discovered a benign thyroid tumor five years earlier. They noted that because the lump was benign until the start of hormone therapy, it is possible that the treatment turned it cancerous.

Although the patient was not overweight and had no family history of the disease, they smoked more than 50 packs of cigarettes per year, which increased the risk of thyroid cancer.

The patient did not undergo surgery due to heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) caused by smoking.

In 2021, the patient died of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a heart condition caused by the buildup of plaque in the arteries, making it difficult for blood to flow through the body.

The researchers noted that gender-affirming care was the only common denominator among the three patients, as they all otherwise had different risk factors for thyroid cancer.

However, they also wrote that the evidence suggesting that estrogen might increase the risk of thyroid cancer is mixed and found mainly in animals.

Dr. Hiba Tariq Basheer, assistant clinical professor of health sciences at UC Davis, said in a press release: ‘We are cautious with our findings, but further research is needed to determine the role of estrogen gender-affirming hormone therapy and thyroid cancer.’