Christian Hamburger (19 February 1904 – 6 October 1992) was a Danish

endocrinologist Endocrinology (from ''endocrine'' + '' -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the integration of developmental events ...

. He worked in Copenhagen and was the doctor responsible for

Christine Jorgensen Christine Jorgensen (May 30, 1926 – May 3, 1989) was an American trans woman who was the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery. She had a career as a successful actress, singer and rec ...

's sex reassignment, and she would choose her name in honor of him.

Career

Hamburger was born into a wealthy Copenhagen family in 1904; his father was a physician. He completed his medical training in Copenhagen from 1928 to 1932. He began working in the field of endocrinology in 1930, and after completing a doctoral thesis in 1933, he became head of the Hormone Department of Statens Serum Institut, a medical research institute. In 1936, he studied in New York for six months with a scholarship from the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

. He co-founded the Danish Society for Endocrinology in 1947 and was the society's chairman from its foundation until 1972. When ''Acta Endocrinologica'' (now the '' European Journal of Endocrinology''), the official publication of the European Society of Endocrinology, was established in 1948, Hamburger was appointed an associate editor; he was chief editor of the journal from 1960 until his retirement in 1973. Hamburger's early research was focused on

gonadotropin Gonadotropins are glycoprotein hormones secreted by gonadotropic cells of the anterior pituitary of vertebrates. This family includes the mammalian hormones follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH), the placental/ chorioni ...

s. He was the first to show that the urine of castrated males contains

follicle-stimulating hormone Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is a gonadotropin, a glycoprotein polypeptide hormone. FSH is synthesized and secreted by the gonadotropic cells of the anterior pituitary gland and regulates the development, growth, pubertal maturation, an ...

. His doctoral thesis showed that the gonadotropin hormone present in the urine of pregnant women is produced by

chorion The chorion is the outermost fetal membrane around the embryo in mammals, birds and reptiles (amniotes). It develops from an outer fold on the surface of the yolk sac, which lies outside the zona pellucida (in mammals), known as the vitelline ...

ic tissue rather than the

pituitary gland In vertebrate anatomy, the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland, about the size of a chickpea and weighing, on average, in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain. The ...

; he thus named the hormone

human chorionic gonadotropin Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a hormone for the maternal recognition of pregnancy produced by trophoblast cells that are surrounding a growing embryo (syncytiotrophoblast initially), which eventually forms the placenta after implantation ...

. His later research covered topics including

androgen An androgen (from Greek ''andr-'', the stem of the word meaning "man") is any natural or synthetic steroid hormone that regulates the development and maintenance of male characteristics in vertebrates by binding to androgen receptors. This inc ...

hormones, 17-ketosteroids,

antigonadotropin An antigonadotropin is a drug which suppresses the activity and/or downstream effects of one or both of the gonadotropins, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH). This results in an inhibition of the hypothalamic-pitui ...

s, and methods for administering

sex hormone Sex hormones, also known as sex steroids, gonadocorticoids and gonadal steroids, are steroid hormones that interact with vertebrate steroid hormone receptors. The sex hormones include the androgens, estrogens, and progestogens. Their effects ar ...

s. Hamburger received international attention in 1952 after treating

, an American

transgender woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and so ...

who wanted a male-to-female sex reassignment. Under Hamburger's care, Jorgensen was given estrogen hormone replacement therapy and underwent a

penectomy Penectomy is penis removal through surgery, generally for medical or personal reasons. Medical reasons for penectomy Cancer, for example, sometimes necessitates removal of part or all of the penis. The amount of penis removed depends on the se ...

and

orchidectomy Orchiectomy (also named orchidectomy, and sometimes shortened as orchi or orchie) is a surgical procedure in which one or both testicles are removed. The surgery is performed as treatment for testicular cancer, as part of surgery for transgend ...

. Hamburger felt that it was unethical to deny medical treatment to transgender women in order to make their lives "as tolerable as possible". He believed that

psychotherapy Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of psychological methods, particularly when based on regular personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase happiness, and overcome pro ...

was futile in these patients. Gordene Olga MacKenzie, the author of the 1994 book ''Transgender Nation'', referred to Hamburger and

Harry Benjamin Harry Benjamin (January 12, 1885 – August 24, 1986) was a German-American endocrinologist and sexologist, widely known for his clinical work with transgender people. Early life and career Benjamin was born in Berlin, and raised in a German ...

as "the two pioneering figures most responsible for the creation of modern clinical transsexual ideology". She claimed that the Jorgensen case provided the model for contemporary treatment of transgender people in the United States. Richard F. Docter, who authored a 2013 biography of Jorgensen, wrote of Hamburger: "He is seldom credited with being the inventor of the modern protocol for transsexualism, but he was."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamburger, Christian 1904 births 1992 deaths Danish endocrinologists People from Copenhagen 20th-century Danish physicians Surgeons specializing in transgender medicine 20th-century surgeons Medical journal editors