Patient satisfaction with gender identity clinic services in the United Kingdom

Exploring Healthcare Experiences of Transgender Individuals

“…22 A study looking to patient satisfaction with gender identity clinics in the United Kingdom found that despite embedded system barriers, transgender satisfaction with healthcare services can be achieved through clinical care that incorporates supervision of one's time living in their chosen gender role, provides adequate information about hormone treatment and postoperative hormone advice, provides support for significant others, friendly and courteous administration, and punctuality of both physicians and the scheduling follow-up appointments. 23 Although these healthcare systems can be seen to differ from that of Canada, findings from these studies may be considered highly relevant, as literature has noted similar healthcare barriers for the transgender population across such developed countries.…”

Interpersonal Functioning Among Treatment‐Seeking Trans Individuals

“…However, among trans men, difficulties in interpersonal functioning appeared to be higher, despite controlling for depression. Addressing these specific interpersonal problems might be clinically valuable for improving social support, which are often lacking among individuals with gender dysphoria (Factor & Rothblum, ), reducing vulnerability to depression (Bernecker, Constantino, Pazzaglia, Ravitz, & McBride, ), and facilitating the transitional process trans people undertake to make their body as congruous as possible with their gender identity (Coleman et al., ; Davies et al., ; Wylie et al., ).…”

“…The strength of this study is the high number of trans people who agreed to participate. However, it must be acknowledged that not every trans individual seeks cross‐sex hormone treatment and/or sex reassignment surgery and that this is not necessarily the proper end of a trans person's journey (Ahmad et al., ; Bouman & Richards, ; Coleman et al., ; Davies et al., ). To ensure we had a population with a clear diagnosis, which makes the study replicable and more reliable, this study focused on people attending a large national clinic.…”

Yes and yes again: are standards of care which require two referrals for genital reconstructive surgery ethical?

“…The treatment approaches for gender dysphoria in SoC follow the ethos of reversible interventions before the irreversible, and implementation of continuous living in the desired gender role prior to eligibility for genital surgeries (Coleman et al, 2012;Davies et al, 2013;Wylie et al, 2014) and the commencement of hormone treatment usually precedes these genital surgeries. Returning to our example above of a trans woman who wishes to undergo a bilateral orchidectomy as part of sex reassignment À a bilateral orchidectomy with two written psychiatric opinions may be available after commencement of feminisation with hormone treatment, which might be commenced with one written opinion only (Ahmad et al, 2013;Coleman et al, 2012;Wylie et al, 2014) notwithstanding that some changes effected by hormones are irreversible (Gooren, 2011;Spack, 2013;Wierckx et al, 2012), albeit of a potentially less significant nature than those instigated by surgery.…”

“…Returning to our example above of a trans woman who wishes to undergo a bilateral orchidectomy as part of sex reassignment À a bilateral orchidectomy with two written psychiatric opinions may be available after commencement of feminisation with hormone treatment, which might be commenced with one written opinion only (Ahmad et al, 2013;Coleman et al, 2012;Wylie et al, 2014) notwithstanding that some changes effected by hormones are irreversible (Gooren, 2011;Spack, 2013;Wierckx et al, 2012), albeit of a potentially less significant nature than those instigated by surgery. A similar argument can, of course, be made for trans men who may receive masculinising hormone therapy following one opinion, but require two opinions for a hysterectomy.…”