When transgender men take testosterone pills or shots for about four years, their cholesterol and fat levels in the blood don’t really change, even though their testosterone goes up a lot — so it seems like the hormone isn’t messing with their body’s fat and cholesterol balance.

For transgender women taking estrogen pills, patches, or shots for about five years, their cholesterol and fat levels in the blood don’t seem to go up or down much — even though their estrogen goes up and testosterone goes down.

Taking testosterone therapy might slightly lower the 'good' cholesterol and could raise the 'bad' cholesterol, which could change how your body handles fats in the blood.

For men with low testosterone, taking testosterone therapy may slightly raise the good cholesterol (HDL) without hurting blood pressure or blood sugar levels, based on a big study called TRAVERSE.

Giving men extra testosterone seems to lower their 'bad' cholesterol and total cholesterol (which is good), but it also lowers their 'good' cholesterol (which might not be so good).

For men with low testosterone, taking testosterone therapy may lower their overall cholesterol by about 7% after a year, but it doesn’t seem to change the 'bad' LDL cholesterol.