The Biden administration funded a new study that creates transgender rats to research the health risks of cross-gender hormone usage on the cardiovascular system.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent $31,694 in November to launch a study at the University of Mississippi Medical Center on hormone usage for transgender women. Researchers at the college will give male rats female hormones. The grant description states the study is needed due to the lack of research on the impact of the drugs, which they note may be harmful, particularly to the heart.
“Although long-term studies in this population are limited, recent studies suggest that cardiovascular (CV) risk may be elevated,” the grant description read.
The study aims to “test the hypothesis that increased end organ damage and cardiovascular risk in transgender females that undergo gender-affirming hormone therapy involves an estradiol-induced ‘male sex-specific’ effect on the renin-angiotensin system.”
“To address this gap in knowledge, the Alexander laboratory has developed a novel model of feminizing hormone therapy in the male rat that involves administration of E2 to mimic physiological levels observed in age-matched female rats in conjunction with androgen suppression,” the grant description continued.
Estradiol is an estrogen steroid hormone and the major female sex hormone. Androgen is a male sex hormone.
The Biden administration has continued to insist that transgender hormones and hormone inhibitors, which they call “lifesaving,” must be kept available for minors as Republican-led states, including Texas, have attempted to restrict them. These claims come even after the administration spent roughly $17 million on studies through the NIH that revealed negative side effects of the drugs. These effects include cardiovascular risks, weakened immune systems, higher levels of HIV, and infertility, as reported by Fox News.
Leftwing groups have been pushing for the Food and Drug Administration to approve cross-sex hormones specifically for use by transgender individuals. The drugs are currently prescribed to transgender patients “off label,” as reported by Axios.
The use of transgender hormones on rats is not the first attempt by the NIH to test the drugs on animals. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the NIH, spent over $205,000 on a study that injected monkeys with feminizing hormones to test how it impacted their ability to counter SIV, the primate equivalent of HIV, as first reported by The Washington Free Beacon.
The NIH launched another program in November with a $196,344 grant to analyze the impact of cross-gender hormone usage on the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia among transgender patients.
The Center for Innovative Public Health Research received federal funding in September for a national pregnancy prevention program for transgender boys, as first reported by the Daily Caller. The program uses a messaging program that was originally designed for “cisgender sexual minority girls” ages 14-18 to “address social and structural influences of sexual behavior.”
The program will use focus groups to identify “the contexts that affect sexual decision-making” of transgender boys and will modify the content of the messaging so that it “resonates with these youth,” as the Daily Caller reported. The program received nearly $700,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
A program in Dallas County that received $750,000 from the NIH aims to distribute harm reduction supplies specifically to gay and transgender black people, as first reported by The Dallas Express.