Can environmental exposures and their associations with the epigenome, autism and altered body perception explain the observed increase in gender dysphoria the last decade?

During the last decade, there has been a substantial increase in the incidence of gender dysphoria (GD), the clinical condition of feeling being born in the wrong body; especially among young people with female birth-assigned sex along with neuropsychiatric diagnoses such as autism. The etiology of GD and the reasons behind its increase are unknown.

Exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals is known to affect neurodevelopment and is reported to be involved in norm-nonconforming gender expression in children.

We will use material from the well-characterized SKDS-cohort including 484 participants with GD and 462 without, in combination with state-of-the-art methods for measuring exogenous and endogenous prenatal exposures (metabolomics) in newborn dried blood spots from PKU-Biobank and metal metabolism analyses (metalomics) in hair samples, as well as epigenetic analyses in saliva samples, in order to adress the hypothesis that prenatal environmental exposures, including EDCs, are associated with the development of GD.

We will further explore the possible mediating or moderating role of autism- and body perception traits, assessed with a novel digital tool (Somatomaps), in the associations between prenatal  exposures, specific epigenetic and metal metabolism patterns and GD.

The results of this project will not only contribute to our understanding of the etiology of GD, but can also inform prevention actions by pointing to potentially modifiable exposures during pregnancy.