Gender-Affirming Care Is Important

What is gender-affirming care?

Gender-affirming care refers to a broad range of medical and non-medical services designed to help someone transition their gender, which means transitioning from the gender they were assigned at birth to the gender that matches their gender identity.

Gender-affirming care can include hormone therapy or surgery. But it also refers to healthcare that is provided in an accepting way no matter how the patient identifies. That can be as simple as HCPs asking for and using preferred pronouns to being informed and experienced in treating transgender people.

Read: Embracing Hope: The Transformative Power of Gender-Affirming Care >>

“For transgender patients who have historically and contemporarily been discriminated against within the healthcare setting, gender-affirming care means having a provider who respects and celebrates who they are,” said Sarah Pickle, M.D., associate professor of clinical family and community medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. “For some people, that could mean allowing their body to be aligned through hormone therapy or other medical or surgical interventions.”

Pickle helped develop UC’s transgender medicine curriculum, which is integrated throughout the general medical curriculum. “Just like our cisgender patients [people whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth], our transgender patients are represented in the patient stories, the clinical vignettes and the teaching that our medical students are going to have.”

Why gender-affirming care matters

Getting gender-affirming care can be the difference between life and death. Research shows that 8 out of 10 transgender youth have considered suicide — and 4 out of 10 have followed through with an attempt. Gender dysphoria — when your gender identity does not match your assigned sex — can cause severe emotional distress. But when people’s physical bodies match who they know they are, depression and anxiety may be less severe, and self-esteem, self-acceptance and confidence improve.

According to a 2022 study, gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, makes an enormous difference in trans people’s mental health. In fact, having gender-affirming care lowers the odds of depression by 60% and the odds of suicide by 73%.

“If somebody has a marginalized identity, and they are in a chronic state of societal stigma and discrimination and have less access to medical care to improve other aspects of their health, [it puts their body under] chronic stress,” Pickle said. “It's going to lead to poorer mental and physical health outcomes.”

In one survey, nearly 1 in 4 transgender people reported not seeking out healthcare when they needed it (even when it was unrelated to transitioning) out of fear that they would be mistreated by their HCP.

Read: Healthcare Access for Transgender Women >>

“It was really scary going to the doctor my first six months after transitioning,” Reed said. She was nervous about how she would be perceived and how healthcare providers would treat her.

And the fear is rational: About 1 in 3 transgender people who did see a HCP reported having a negative experience, such as harassment or being refused treatment because of their gender identity

“Sometimes it is very explicit that people are being mistreated because they are transgender,” Pickle said. “People are asked inappropriate questions or even forced to have inappropriate examinations out of providers’ lack of cultural competency in this area and often because of transphobia. Then there's this more implicit discrimination that can happen that often is from lack of knowledge, lack of training and lack of experience across the healthcare field.”