Exercise may counter muscle loss in transgender women on hormone therapy
NCT ID NCT07400419
First seen Jun 27, 2026 · Last updated Sep 11, 2026 · Updated 3 times
Summary
This study looks at whether a 12-week home resistance exercise program can help transgender women and gender-diverse individuals starting estrogen-based hormone therapy maintain muscle mass and strength. Hormone therapy can increase the risk of muscle loss (sarcopenia), which may lead to health problems. Participants will be randomly assigned to either an exercise group or a counseling-only group to see if exercise helps preserve muscle and improve well-being.
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Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Not a phased trial
Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.
- Participants
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About 40 people
The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.
- Started
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Apr 2026
- Expected to finish
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Apr 2028
An estimate. End dates often move.
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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18 years and older
- Sex
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Male participants only
- Healthy volunteers
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Not accepted
This study is not open to healthy volunteers. The entry requirements below say who it is open to.
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Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria: * ≥ 18 years * Initiating or within 3 months or less of initiating GAHT with estradiol (oral, sublingual, patch, injection) AND androgen suppression (leuprolide, spironolactone or bicalutamide) * Identifies as either a transgender female/woman, gender-diverse, non-binary, gender non-confirming, gender-fluid, and/or gender-queer * Assigned male sex at birth Exclusion Criteria: * Current condition(s) which may preclude the ability to participate in a resistance exercise program (including but not limited to conditions which may significantly impair mobility and balance) * Current condition(s) where resistance exercise program may be contraindicated (including but not limited to decompensated heart failure, unstable ischemic heart disease, pulmonary hypertension, aortic aneurysm, moderate to severe valvopathies, and/or moderate to severe chronic respiratory insufficiency) * Use of testosterone therapy for \> 1 month in the last 6 months * Use of gender-affirming hormone therapy with androgen/testosterone suppression and/or estradiol therapy within 1 year of enrollment * Use of gender-affirming hormone therapy with androgen/testosterone suppression and/or estradiol therapy for \> 1 year at any time period prior to enrollment * History of an orchiectomy * Current resistance exercise (including but not limited to use of resistance bands, suspension equipment, body weight exercise, free weight exercise) of 60 minutes or greater per week * Enrollment in another study that the study investigators deem as potentially interfering with study participants or study endpoints
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Conditions
The condition(s) this trial relates to.
As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
How to take part
Only the study team decides who joins. These are the ways to reach them.
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The places running it
1 site. The list below names each one and where it is.
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The official record
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A doctor treating you
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Contacts and locations
Locations
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Massachusetts General Hospital
RECRUITINGBoston, Massachusetts, 02114, United States
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