Get New Care Standards for Trans Patients
Transgender patients may not be at the top of the list for providers considering cultural differences or inequality in health care. But they can be subject to thoughtless discrimination when seeking care.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health recently released its latest Standards of Care (SOC) for Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People. The full text of the SOC is available for free online.

Notable changes from previous versions of the SOC include:

• a clear statement that gender non-conformity is not pathological
• a holistic approach that cares for the whole person, not just from a mental health perspective
• psychotherapy is no longer needed for hormones and surgery
• standards support an informed consent model, which makes it easier to get hormones and surgery from community health clinics
• changes no longer have to be binary (from one gender extreme to the other).

For more information, visit the Association's website.