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What Gender-Affirming Care Actually Means

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), gender-affirming care is a model in which “pediatric providers offer developmentally appropriate care that is oriented toward understanding and appreciating the youth’s gender experience.” This model aims to create a safe space for young people to explore their identity, while sending the message that “variations in gender identity and expression are normal aspects of human diversity.” Bills seeking to ban this kind of care focus on specific medical interventions that might arise during gender-affirming care, like puberty blockers, hormone treatment, or gender affirmation surgeries. But, these treatments aren’t necessarily the sole focus…

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 Gender-Affirming Care Needs a Lobotomy

The diagnosis of gender dysphoria bewitched the medical community like the brutal brain operation once did.

 Position Statement on Gender Surgery for Children and Adolescents

Consistent with ASPS’s August 2024 statement that the overall evidence base for gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions is low certainty, and in light of recent publications reporting very low/low certainty of evidence regarding mental health outcomes, along with emerging concerns about potential long-term harms and the irreversible nature of surgical interventions in a developmentally vulnerable population, ASPS concludes there is insufficient evidence demonstrating a favorable risk-benefit ratio for the pathway of gender-related endocrine and surgical interventions in children and adolescents. ASPS recommends that surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old.

 The Battle Over Gender Therapy

More teenagers than ever are seeking transitions, but the medical community that treats them is deeply divided about why — and what to do to help them.

 Why Gender Affirming Care is Critical

Gender affirming therapy is part of all therapeutic care. Every human has a gender identity. Every human has a sexuality. Gender affirming care recognizes that exploring gender and sexuality are healthy parts of the journey in learning about ourselves. There has been a lot of discussion lately in politics about Gender Affirming care with misinformation that confuses our ability to provide ethical and, at times, life saving care. Put simply: Affirming therapy is an interpersonal process that recognizes and supports an individual’s unique sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Affirming therapy moves beyond the binary of male and female to support an individual’s personal growth as they explore their personal and social identity.

Articles of Interest

Why gender-affirming care should be part of preventive mental health care for trans people

Supporting the mental health of trans people is an urgent public health issue. When compared to the general U.S. population, the rates of lifetime suicide attempts, severe psychological distress and clinical depression are estimated to be nine, eight and six times higher for trans people. Gender-affirming care is linked to improved quality of life and mental health among trans people. Such care is defined as high-quality medical, surgical, and mental health services that affirm and align gender goals — and are tailored to meet the needs of trans people. Yet gender-affirming care is only administered when trans people experience a clinically significant level of distress (i.e., worsened mental health outcome) that meets criteria for gender dysphoria.

Everything you need to know about gender affirming surgery

Gender affirmation surgery, also known as gender confirmation surgery, helps people transition to their ‘self-identified’ gender, giving them the physical appearance and functional abilities of the gender they know themselves to be. This might include anything from facial surgery to bottom surgery and top surgery, usually used as a treatment to ease symptoms of gender dysphoria.

Gender-Affirming Care and Mental Health Care

Gender-affirming care has been a topic within mainstream media for the past several years. While some people think of surgical interventions during these discussions, health care providers and organizations classify a range of treatments as part of a gender-affirming care routine. Research shows that transgender and nonbinary individuals who receive gender-affirming care experience greater health outcomes such as decreased levels of depression, anxiety and suicidality.

Gender-Affirming Care for Youth

Gender-affirming care has been shown to reduce suicide ideation and attempts in transgender individuals, along with social support, familial support, and reduction of discrimination.

Gender-affirming care has a long history in the US – and not just for transgender people

When politicians today refer to gender-affirming care as new, “untested” or “experimental,” they ignore the long history of transgender medicine in the United States.

Gender-affirming hormones can improve teens’ mental health and life satisfaction

The research is one of the longest studies to study the psychological effects of gender-affirming care. Access to gender-affirming hormones significantly improves the mental health and overall life satisfaction of transgender and nonbinary teens, finds a new study published January 18 in The New England Journal of Medicine. In one of the longest and largest studies looking at psychological outcomes, the authors’ conclusions further support the idea of gender-affirming care as a life-saving treatment.

Get the Facts on Gender-Affirming Care

Every person has the fundamental right to access the health care they need without fear of discrimination, prejudice, or barriers to treatment that supports their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. But across the country, extreme politicians desperate to gain power are attacking the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender and non-binary youth, and weaponizing critical issues to rally support around anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

Increasing Number Of European Nations Adopt A More Cautious Approach To Gender-Affirming Care Among Minors

Many European countries do not allow the use of cross-sex hormones until age 16, and only then after completing a number of psychotherapy sessions. In addition, the vast majority of European countries ban surgery until age 16. From puberty blockers to cross-sex hormones to surgery, the rules across Europe tend to be either stricter than many jurisdictions in the U.S. or in the process of tightening.

Second Thoughts on ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

The American Academy of Pediatrics said last week that it will commission a systematic review of the evidence for pediatric sex-trait modification, known euphemistically as “gender-affirming care.” This marks a turning point in the battle over the controversial medical protocol. To those who favor evidence-based rather than eminence-based medicine, it is a step in the right direction.

The benefits of gender-affirming care

There’s a reason families across the country drive hundreds of miles to Washington state so their children who are trans can access gender-affirming care: extensive studies have found that this care benefits mental health. As state governments pose challenges to gender-affirming care, researchers, practitioners and students at the UW have been working to document the importance of holistic and inclusive health care services for transgender and nonbinary people.

The Evidence for Trans Youth Gender-Affirming Medical Care

Research suggests gender-affirming medical care results in better mental health.

Trans people affirmed their gender without medical help in medieval Europe − history shows how identity transcends medicine and law

To transition without medicine, medieval transgender people relied on changes they could make themselves. They cut their hair, put on different clothes, changed their names, and found new places in society.

What the Science on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Kids Really Shows

Laws that ban gender-affirming treatment ignore the wealth of research demonstrating its benefits for trans people’s health.

What to Know About the Gender-Affirming-Care Bans Spreading Across the Country

While the many restrictions on gender-affirming care being considered in state houses across the country do share some similarities, state lawmakers are trying a range of tactics to control access to such medical treatment.

Where Are All the Doctors Who Can Provide Gender-Affirming Care?

The demand for surgeries is on the rise, but physicians trained to perform them remain few and far between. Now, many patients have complications to show for it.

Why Is the U.S. Still Pretending We Know Gender-Affirming Care Works?

Imagine a comprehensive review of research on a treatment for children found “remarkably weak evidence” that it was effective. Now imagine the medical establishment shrugged off the conclusions and continued providing the same unproven and life-altering treatment to its young patients. This is where we are with gender medicine in the United States. It’s been three months since the release of the Cass Review, an independent assessment of gender treatment for youths commissioned by England’s National Health Service.

Yet Another Study Shows That Trans and Nonbinary Teens Benefit From Gender-Affirming Care

Policies aimed at banning hormones are at odds with basic human rights and science.

Resources

WPATH

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly known as the (Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, interdisciplinary professional and educational organization devoted to transgender health. Our professional, supporting, and student members engage in academic research to develop evidence-based medicine and strive to promote a high quality of care for transsexual, transgender, and gender-nonconforming individuals internationally.