What should I know about gender?
Feb 24, 2022 · Gender-affirmation care refers to treatments, ranging from surgery to speech therapy, that support a transgender or nonbinary person in their gender transition. Transgender people identify with a...
What are the 6 genders?
Orchiectomy is a relatively inexpensive option in which the testes are removed. This allows your body to create less endogenous testosterone, which can …
How much does gender confirmation surgery cost?
Mar 09, 2022 · Gender affirming care is any treatment that helps a transgender, nonbinary, or gender non-confirming person in their transition process. Professionals specializing in gender-affirming care provide...
What does gender have to do with it?
Nov 15, 2021 · Gender-affirming care allows a patient to change their sex characteristics, bringing their minds and bodies into greater alignment, while continuing to receive a lifetime of competent care from providers who recognize that the challenges people who are trans and gender-nonconforming or nonbinary (TGNC) face are not just medical, but social.
What is gender confirmation treatments?
Transgender individuals may seek medical gender confirmation treatments (GCTs), including administration of hormone therapy (HT) to achieve desired masculinization or feminization, and/or surgical change of the genitalia and other secondary sex characteristics.Feb 17, 2018
Why is it called gender confirmation surgery?
Today, many transgender people prefer to use the term “gender confirmation surgery,” because when we say something like gender “reassignment” or “sex change,” it implies that a person's gender changes when they have surgery.
What is the most common treatment for gender dysphoria?
Medical treatment of gender dysphoria might include:Hormone therapy, such as feminizing hormone therapy or masculinizing hormone therapy.Surgery, such as feminizing surgery or masculinizing surgery to change the chest, external genitalia, internal genitalia, facial features and body contour.Feb 26, 2022
At what age is gender dysphoria most common?
The study findings revealed that 73% of the transgender women and 78% of the transgender men first experienced gender dysphoria by age 7.Jun 16, 2020
Is gender dysphoria caused by trauma?
Gender dysphoria currently exists as a mental health diagnosis, perpetuating stigma as well as pathologizing gender variance. Clinical social workers have preserved a harmful formulation that gender dysphoria is a disorder caused by trauma.
What does gender dysphoria feel like?
Gender dysphoria can feel different for everyone. It can manifest as distress, depression, anxiety, restlessness or unhappiness. It might feel like anger or sadness, or feeling slighted or negative about your body, or like there are parts of you missing.
May Be a Part of Medical Transition
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Hormone Therapy Types and Variations
Gender-affirming hormone therapy fundamentally comes in two types—masculinizing hormone therapy and feminizing hormone therapy. Puberty blockers, which are used to delay the onset of puberty in young, gender-diverse people before the start of hormone therapy, affect the hormone system but are normally considered to be a different type of care.
Relevant Terminology
Transgender medicine is a quickly evolving field, and, as such, the terminology changes quickly.
Health Care and Discrimination
Until relatively recently, access to gender-affirming hormone therapy was largely managed through gatekeeping models that required gender-diverse people to undergo psychological assessment before they could access hormone treatment.
A Word From Verywell
Access to gender-affirming hormone therapy is associated with significant psychosocial benefits. For transgender and gender-diverse individuals, being able to socially and medically affirm their gender can be critical for physical and psychological well-being. 6
Double incision
With this procedure, incisions are typically made at the top and bottom of the pectoral muscle and the chest tissue is removed.
Periareolar and keyhole
With the periareolar procedure, one incision is made around the areola, and a larger circular incision is made around that.
Metoidioplasty
The enlarged clitoris is released from the clitoral hood to create a new phallus.
Phalloplasty
A graft is taken — typically from the forearm, thigh, or back — and used to create a penis.
Hysterectomy, oophorectomy, and vaginectomy
AFAB trans people have a number of options when it comes to their reproductive organs. This includes removal of the uterus ( hysterectomy ), removal of one or both ovaries ( oophorectomy ), and removal of the vagina.
Breast augmentation
An incision is made along the areola, at the point where the chest and breast tissue meet or under the armpit.
Vaginoplasty
A functioning vagina is created out of existing tissue. The most common method is through penile inversion. The penis is inverted to create a vagina, the tip of the penis becomes a functioning clitoris, and the scrotal skin becomes the labia.
What Is Gender-Affirming Care?
Gender-affirming care describes an array of health services that alleviate the suffering associated with gender dysphoria, defined in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as clinically significant distress or impairment related to a strong desire to be of another gender.
Who Needs Gender-Affirming Care?
As we mentioned, gender-affirming care directly benefits people with gender dysphoria. About 44 million people worldwide have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, according to The International Brazilian Journal of Urology paper mentioned above. But estimates like these likely underreport the true figures, according to WPATH.
Gender-Affirming Care Is Patient-Centered Care
The first U.S. gender clinics only accepted patients who would complete a social, legal and medical transition that resulted in a perfect binary: a heterosexual man or woman who "passed" as such in society, and who retained no reproductive capacities associated with the sex assigned to them at birth.
The History of Gender-Affirming Care in the U.S
The concept of gender-affirming care first reached most Americans in 1952 when Christine Jorgensen 's transition from male to female made headlines. The first gender clinic in the U.S. opened in 1966 at Johns Hopkins.
Innovations in Gender-Affirming Care
Both acknowledgment by the medical profession that gender-affirming care is medically necessary and laws preventing discrimination against TGNC people have led to an increase in gender-affirming services, according to a February 2018 article in The Washington Post .
Surgical Advances
In the late 1960s, transgender patients were warned their surgical outcomes from what's collectively called "lower surgery" or "bottom surgery" would not resemble the genitals of cisgender women and men. For trans women, a vagina that could be penetrated by a penis was considered the only functional goal of surgery.
How to Access Gender-Affirming Care
The people who responded to interview requests for this article reported starting their search for gender-affirming care with a primary care physician, or through a clinic for underserved sexual minorities. Callen Lorde in New York City, Lyon Martin in San Francisco and Tapestry in Greenfield, Massachusetts, all came up in interviews.
Hormone Therapy Types and Variations
- Gender-affirming hormone therapy is the primary medical intervention sought by transgender people. Such treatment allows the acquisition of secondary sex characteristics more aligned with an individual's gender identity.
Relevant Terminology
Health Care and Discrimination
A Word from Verywell
