Christine Jorgensen was a transgender woman and activist in the United States who lived during the twentieth century. She was one of the first US citizens to publicly disclose her gender transition from male to female through gender-affirming surgery and hormone replacement therapy. By 1949, when Jorgensen began her transition, few individuals had undergone gender transition. Various popular media outlets reported on Jorgensen’s gender transition and surgery, which allowed Jorgensen to educate the American public on topics such as gender identity and sexual orientation. Jorgensen authored an autobiography in 1967, which detailed the journey of her life from early childhood to the end of her forties. Although many transgender people continue to fight for acceptance and equality in the US as of 2024, Jorgensen’s advocacy and activism increased transgender awareness for the general public at a time when existing and living openly as a transgender person received little recognition and support.

In 2021, Dorte Glintborg, Guy T’Sjoen, Pernille Ravn, and Marianne Skovsager Anderson published “Management of Endocrine Disease: Optimal Feminizing Hormone Treatment in Transgender People,” hereafter “Optimal Feminizing HT,” in the European Journal of Endocrinology. Glintborg and her colleagues compiled information regarding the safe administration of feminizing gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy, or GAHT. Feminizing GAHT uses hormones and medications that alter the effects of hormones in the body to spur development of secondary female characteristics and may also include the suppression of secondary male characteristics. Proper administration of GAHT can greatly improve the quality of life for individuals experiencing gender dysphoria, which is defined as a sense of distress due to a person’s assigned gender not aligning with their gender identity. By providing an up-to-date overview of current and developing practices, “Optimal Feminizing HT” provides physicians with knowledge relevant to tailoring feminizing GAHT to individual patients.