Health Status of Transgender Women in French Guiana and Paris (TransGuyane)

Transgender or trans women in French Guiana are not known to the hospital environment and rarely seek care: only about fifteen patients are followed up in the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit (UMIT) and the Adult Day Hospital (HDJA) of the Cayenne Hospital Center for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. There is therefore a lack of knowledge of this population, of their health needs (physical, sexual and mental) but also a lack of assistance in the transition process. However, the violence suffered and the risks of infection are high among transgender women who frequently resort to sex work. In fact, they are said to carry the highest burden of HIV in the world, particularly in South America. The need for HIV prevention among transgender women in South America is great.

There is no bibliography of published works concerning transgender women in French Guiana, whereas there are more and more publications from countries that are geographically close (Brazil, Peru, United States), or even from metropolitan France. It is therefore necessary to address this issue in French Guiana. The population of transgender women followed up at the Bichat Hospital (for HIV infection or as part of a sexual health follow-up) represents one of the largest active files of transgender women in France and offers the opportunity to look at these two populations from a cross-sectional perspective.

The study will be cross-sectional and multicentric (Cayenne in French Guiana, Paris) and will include transgender women who have reached the age of majority and who agree to answer a questionnaire concerning their living and socio-economic conditions, their migration, their physical, sexual and mental health, and their transition process. Data relating to the search for Sexually Transmitted Infection STIs check-up as well as dermatological examination will be studied in particular with the agreement of the participants.

Data relating to the second consultation will be studied in particular (report of results) without systematic follow-up.

Non-interventional research (RIPH category 3). Cross-sectional observational multicentric study: at the CHC (Cayenne, French Guiana) and at Bichat Hospital (Paris).

Inclusion criteria

• Person identifying as a transgender woman
• Consulting at Cayenne Hospital (French Guiana) or Bichat Hospital (Paris)
• Between 07/2021 and 10/2022
• Major
• No opposition to the study
• Absence of neurological or psychiatric disorders that prevented understanding of the study and free participation (sequelae of cerebral toxoplasmosis with aphasia, deaf and mute person, active neuro-meningeal opportunistic infections with cognitive impairment…)

Exclusion criteria

• Minor
• Refusal to participate and/or neurological or psychiatric disorder preventing understanding of the study
• Not be able to answer questions in languages mastered by principal investigator (French, English, Spanish or Portuguese)
• Person under guardianship or curatorship