--- title: "Organ Transplants Can Change Personality and Even Sexual Orientation, Scientists Find" description: "In a study involving 47 participants, a whopping 89 percent reported personality changes following organ transplantation surgery." date: "2024-04-27" modified: "2024-04-27" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/organ-transplants-change-personality" categories: - "Health & Medicine" - "Studies" tags: - "health" - "organ transplants" - "sexual identity" - "surgery" --- # Organ Transplants Can Change Personality and Even Sexual Orientation, Scientists Find ![In a study involving 47 participants, a whopping 89 percent reported personality changes following organ transplantation surgery.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* Scientists have found that organ transplants can have unexpected consequences, including profound changes to one's personality and sexual preferences. In a study involving 47 participants, a whopping 89 percent reported personality changes following their surgery, the [*South China Morning Post* reports](), no matter what organ they had received. These changes included changes in the preferences for food, intimacy, and even professional pursuits. As detailed in a [paper]() published in the journal *Transplantology* in January, a team of researchers from the University of Colorado found that a majority of participants reported changes in their personality, including "enhanced social and sexual adaptation," and "spiritual or religious episodes." Six of the 47 participants reported changes in "sexual preferences." Some transplant recipients even reported that they'd taken on the memories of their organ donors — which sounds pretty far-fetched medically, but could certainly be evidence of these serious operations leading to profound cognitive and emotional turmoil. Not all changes described by the latest study's organ recipients were positive. A number of them also reported negative effects, including depression, anxiety, and sexual dysfunction. It's also possible that the changes could have a simpler explanation. "Many of these changes may have resulted from improvement in physical health following surgery rather than a transfer of personality from donor to recipient," University of Colorado assistant clinical professor and coauthor Mitch Liester told the *SCMP*. Then there's the small sample size of just 47 people. And the researchers also point out in their paper that the findings may have been due to "selection bias resulting from our recruitment of individuals to participate in a study that explicitly stated it was examining personality changes following organ transplants." "Individuals who have not experienced personality changes might be less likely to participate in such a study," the paper reads. In other words, more research is needed — but the intriguing results do show that an organ transplant can rattle more than just a patient's physical body. **More on organ transplants:** *[Man Is Doing Well With Implanted Pig Heart, Doctors Say]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()