Over the weekend I received an email from the group TransActive that announced the WPATH (aka, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health) just released the latest Standards of Care. For those not in the know, basically these are guidelines for healthcare providers to consider/follow to address the needs of trans clients, particularly in situations where social/physical/legal transition is involved.
For those interested in perusing them, they can be downloaded at this link:
http://ugcs.net/~irene/drop/soc.pdf
I am too busy the next few weeks to thoroughly go through them, but I will certainly be interested in hearing other people's thoughts in the days/weeks that follow...
Quickly glancing at page 33, it looks like they are no longer wedded to the 3 month therapy/RLT (read hormone-free hazing) requirement before beginning Hormone Replacement therapy, but they still really want the condition to remain one where mental health providers maintain a key role... again I say that the delays and expense that come from insinuating psychiatry into hormonal access are creating mental health issues and sustaining dangerous crisis periods.
ReplyDeleteHRT for trans women should be subject to only the same contraindications that HRT for cis women remains subject to, and no more.
They always lag a few decades behind common sense! xD It's a rule... what we regard as a logical way to transition in the lest harming way for the patient today will be in the SoC 15 years from now. And even then, they are kind of forced to keep a strong therapist presence all along the process. After all they don't want to lose their jobs and sources of income. xD
ReplyDeleteI don't take the SoC too seriously and thankfully here in Argentina pretty much nobody does(including doctors and therapists).