AFFIRM Relationships project

Are you looking for a PhD position in gender and sexuality research? @genderinsight.bsky.social has several positions available looking at hormonal transitions. Two of the positions include working with our AFFIRM Team! Check out the full list of PhD positions and requirements here: lnkd.in/eQrdkbz7

Introducing @genderinsight.bsky.social! Tomorrow they will officially launch their international and multidisciplinary network for the studying of biopsychosocial influences on gender. You can join the day with conversations, lectures and a film by registering via genderinsight@amsterdamumc.nl.

In 2025 the Affirm Relationships project started their prospective cohort study and TransLove survey, but are also looking forward to our progress in 2026! Want to see what publications, conferences and collaborations we have built up already? Visit our website at lnkd.in/gBadfe6r

This study is part of the AFFIRM Relationships project, which is funded an ERC Starting Grant granted to dr. David Doyle by the @erc.europa.eu.

💬 Stay tuned for more updates via our BlueSky, our Instagram (@AFFIRMRelationships) or our website: lnkd.in/ek4TJDEY

With thanks to the research team: @hormonogo.bsky.social, @nessamillet.bsky.social , @zoppolat.bsky.social,
Sigsten Stieglitz, Baudewijntje Kreukels and PI @dsquared.bsky.social

💡 Impact
With our study, we aim to provide a deeper understanding of how different gender-affirming interventions affect social health and help inform clinical care guidelines.

We are proud to contribute to research that will directly benefit the TGD community and guide future clinical practices!

📅 Data collection and timeline:
Participants will complete questionnaires and social network assessments, and some participants will take part in behavioural tasks.

The study follows participants over 24 months, collecting data at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after starting treatment.

🔬 The study set-up:
In this study, we will examine the effects of gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), voice training, and mastectomies.

In this study, we will examine psychosocial functioning and social health, alongside changes in social stigma, gender congruence, biological factors.

🏳️‍⚧️ Why is this study important?
Gender-affirming care is known to improve gender congruence, but its effects on social health are still underexplored. This study aims to fill that gap, providing insights into how gender-affirming care impacts social networks, relationships, and social well-being.

🚨 Exciting news: the protocol paper of our prospective cohort study has just been published!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A short thread about the background, aim and methods of our study 🧵:

With thanks to our creative and talented interns, who made the infographic post! Be sure to follow us on Instagram (@AFFIRMRelationships) to stay up to date on more study-related posts and content🤳

.... And keep scrolling to see the results here. Want to read the full paper? You can find the full paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Exciting news: We translated one of our recent papers into an infographic post! Scroll though the images to see the paper explained in our infographic:

You can find the full AFFIRM Relationships team via their own accounts as well: dsquared.bsky.social, nessamillet.bsky.social, zoppolat.bsky.social and hormonogo.bsky.social . Let's keep in touch!

And this isn't even all of it! Be sure to follow us to stay up to date on the project, and to check out our website: AFFIRMRelationships.com for the full project information and publications list.

Seeing as social health is an important outcome in our study, David also wrote a key paper on the importance of social health: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38349646/

Changes in affect variability after starting gender-affirming hormone therapy Negative affect variability is determined by how often and how strongly negative affect changes over time. Cisgender women report greater variability …

We have also done first pilot studies to prepare for our cohort study. One of these studies was done by Margot Morssinkhof, who examined changes in emotion variability in trans people who start gender-affirming hormones. This paper was just published: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We have also set up a lived experience expert group, consisting of trans people and their loved ones. Our postdoc Nessa Millet has worked with the lived experience group to integrate co-created insights in our study setup! See her preprint for more information: osf.io/preprints/ps...

We conducted qualitative interviews with trans people about their experiences on gender-affirming hormones and possible changes in their well-being.

We are also preparing to launch a prospective cohort study into the effects of gender-affirming care on social health and well-being! We have been working on preparing for this study through qualitative interviews, co-creation workshops and pilot studies in secondary datasets.

We published a paper on how trans specific healthcare differs across Europe. You can read more about this in our newly published paper, the results of which have also been summarised in an infographic: sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hi BlueSky, we moved! We're an ERC-funded (erc.europe.eu) research project led by David MatthewDoyle (dsquared.bsky.social). We aim to study gender-affirming hormones and social health in trans and gender diverse people. Here's a short recap of what we have done in the project thus far 🧵: