The Top 10 Things Trans People Should Know About the New Standards of Care

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) today released a newly-revised seventh edition of its Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People. The revised Standards of Care are a critical resource for providers, healthcare consumers, and advocates, and are a step forward in ensuring that transgender and gender non-conforming people receive high quality care individualized for their needs.

Significant features of the new edition include:

  • Recognition that gender nonconformity in and of itself is not a disorder.
  • Strong affirmation that attempts to change a person’s gender identity through “reparative” therapy are ineffective and unethical.
  • Strong affirmation that transition-related treatments such as hormone therapy and surgery are medically necessary for many individuals and should be covered by insurance.
  • Continued emphasis on the individual nature of transition-related care and the flexibility of treatment guidelines.
  • Additional guidance on the treatment of adolescents and children, including guidelines for puberty-delaying treatment.
  • Near elimination of the “real-life experience” requirement as a prerequisite criteria for medical transition in adults, with the exception of some genital surgeries.
  • Discussion of a wider range of treatment options, including voice and communication therapy.
  • Discussion of the preventive care needs of transgender people.
  • Clarification that the Standards of Care should be applied in their entirety to those who are incarcerated or otherwise living in an institutionalized setting.
  • A call for health professionals to advocate not only for their patients – for example by helping them obtain updated identity documents – but also for larger policy and legal reform promoting tolerance and equality.

The revised Standards of Care represent a step forward in ensuring that all transgender and gender nonconforming people have access to high-quality, respectful care responsive to their individual needs.

Download the WPATH Standards of Care

18 Responses to The Top 10 Things Trans People Should Know About the New Standards of Care

  1. Sandra-Isabell says:

    Am I allowed to post a translation of this article in a German trans forum? Link to the original would be provided of course. Best wishes, Sandra-Isabell

    • Cheryl Lynne says:

      I would think that would be okay as long as you properly cite the original article with a link. Use ” Citation Machine” ( Son of Citation) like college students do. Can English translate well into German? I was once told that was the reason earlier versions of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, in English, we’re not grammatically correct? However, that’s probably not true. He spoke a poor dialect of German, it is believed.

  2. Sandra-Isabell says:

    Thankies! You can find the translated version at http://www.forum.dgti.info/viewtopic.php?f=131&t=5145

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  4. Belinda Bricker says:

    How important are the internal genital organs post surgical for medical treatment of female transsexuals? boy to girl surgery where sterility is the new norm for these individuals.

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  8. Celestial says:

    This is insane. Now I’m going to need even more people involved in my life just to get the help I need? And people expect me to NOT try and treat MYSELF?! I can’t believe this! I’m already dealing with the impossibility of ever being who I am, and now I’m never going to experience it. I don’t know why I was born- this life is such a waste of time and space…. I’m sick all the time, and now I can’t even have a CHANCE at being who I am just so my soul can be happy.

    Thanks, humans. You’re all a credit to your race.

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  11. […] The Top 10 Things Trans People Should Know About the New Standards of Care – from the National Center for Transgender Equality […]

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  13. Cheryl Lynne says:

    Thanks for the article. After reading the new WPATH 7 standards of care, particularly the part about those with mental health disabilities. Something which, at first read, seemed to foster the idea of shoving ” Nut pills” down everyone’s throat collecting Social Security disability. Now I realize that they are just guidelines. Naturally, in the idiot country of the first world called USA, the biggest problem one must deal with when it comes to getting surgery is the insurance companies. Something which may come or may not be less of a problem in countries that have single-payer universal healthcare.

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