Maintenance Notice

Due to necessary scheduled maintenance, the JMIR Publications website will be unavailable from Wednesday, July 01, 2020 at 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM EST. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Who will be affected?

Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Dermatology

Date Submitted: Sep 24, 2024
Open Peer Review Period: Sep 24, 2024 - Nov 19, 2024
Date Accepted: Apr 19, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Insights Into Skin-Lightening Practices of Hijra and Transgender Communities in India

Palepu S, Murthy SV, Srikrishnan AK, Kovarik C

Insights Into Skin-Lightening Practices of Hijra and Transgender Communities in India

JMIR Dermatol 2025;8:e66822

DOI: 10.2196/66822

PMID: 40440639

PMCID: 12140499

Insights into Skin Lightening Practices of Hijra and Trans Communities in India

  • Sriram Palepu; 
  • Sindgi Vasudeva Murthy; 
  • Aylur Kailasom Srikrishnan; 
  • Carrie Kovarik

ABSTRACT

This study examined the use of skin lightening products among transwomen in Hyderabad, India, revealing that over two-thirds (67.3%) expressed interest in such treatments. Many used a wide range of topical, oral and IV medications, some of which are not intended to lighten the skin. Despite government regulations and the potential health risks, the persistent demand for skin lightening underscores the need for better patient education and safer skincare practices for this marginalized community.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Palepu S, Murthy SV, Srikrishnan AK, Kovarik C

Insights Into Skin-Lightening Practices of Hijra and Transgender Communities in India

JMIR Dermatol 2025;8:e66822

DOI: 10.2196/66822

PMID: 40440639

PMCID: 12140499

Download PDF


Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.

© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.