Comportamento alimentar de transexuais em terapia hormonal

Abstract

The hormonal treatment realized by transsexuals have an influence on physical, biological and psychological factors, and imply on eating behaviour. Thus, the objective of this research was investigate the eating behaviour and characteristics of food craving, mindful eating and food neophobia. 38 transgender participated, where 25 was female to male and 13 male to female, all paired by age with the cisgender people. The collection took place online and the participants answered the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ), Food Craving Questionnaire State (FCQ-S) and Trait short version (FCQ-T), Mindful Eating Scale (MES) and the food neophobia scale. The results indicated that the eating behaviour of trans people resembled both the biological sex instituted at birth and the gender of identification. In addition, there was a higher occurrence of emotional and external intake, with low food restriction. Regarding the aspects of food craving, the FCQ-S scored considerably low for a trans population, although the FCQ-T showed a high result only for female to male. All expressed a favorable degree of mindful eating and were neutral in relation to a classification of food neophobia. In this perspective, the results obtained a possible influence of hormonal therapy on the eating behaviour of transsexuals and highlights the impact of social and psychological issues on their way of eating, as well as the importance of an adequate professional accompaniment, with an inclusive and qualified look, to ensure comprehensive care.