Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Apr 10, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 25, 2025 - Jun 20, 2025
Date Accepted: Jul 11, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Medical Information Provided by Transgender and Gender Diverse Content Creators on YouTube: A Descriptive Content Analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals often turn to online platforms for information about gender-affirming healthcare. YouTube, a widely used video-sharing platform, hosts content from popular TGD creators that may serve as an educational resource.
Objective:
This study aims to describe the health-related content posted by popular TGD content creators on YouTube.
Methods:
A qualitative content analysis was performed on 2,485 videos produced by 42 self-identified TGD YouTube content creators from January 2023 to February 2024. Videos were systematically evaluated for mentions of gender-affirming care and other health-related topics. We also examined how creators framed medical information and characterized their medical experiences.
Results:
Most videos (n = 1,724) created by TGD content creators did not include discussions related to gender identity or transitioning. However, among the videos that did address gender identity (n = 761), mentions of medical topics were prevalent (n = 554). Hormone replacement therapy (n = 356) and surgeries (n = 307) were the most frequently discussed topics. Videos covering medical topics primarily centered on personal experiences (n = 411), with content creators often characterizing these experiences positively (n = 224).
Conclusions:
This study provides insights into the medical information shared by TGD content creators on YouTube, highlighting the types of content that TGD individuals may encounter on the platform. These findings can help clinicians better understand the sources of information their TGD clients are likely to be using, fostering more informed and supportive conversations about gender-affirming care.
Citation
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Copyright
© 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.