Education Needs of Providers of Transgender Population

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Key points

  • A primary barrier to accessing care is a lack of education in this rapidly evolving field.

  • A comprehensive, interdisciplinary, evidence-based training program is needed to respond to these educational needs.

  • Training should be based on medicine, mental health, and human rights.

  • The World Professional Association for Transgender Health has developed a foundational and advanced competency-based clinical training program in transgender health care.

  • The 4 competency domains are caregiver/care receiver

Barriers to care

Scant education on the topic of trans health is available in medical school curricula,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 so newly minted physicians and other health care professionals are receiving limited training in this burgeoning field. Most practicing physicians are also not equipped to respond to the needs of their trans patients.2, 4, 5 Moreover, research indicates that trans people suffer significant health disparities6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and have apprehensions regarding

The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association and the early Standards of Care

The field of trans health as a medical discipline is relatively young, starting when a small group of pioneering interdisciplinary professionals founded the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA) at a conference held by this association in San Diego in 1979.1 These providers also published the first SOC,28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 40 guidelines on how to medically treat patients who suffered from and had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, then known as

Two Areas

Literature on education is limited and exists in primarily 2 areas, namely, describing gaps in education and professional society guidelines.

Discussion: current World Professional Association for Transgender Health work

WPATH is responding to the providers needs in education in 2 ways, first, via a new chapter in the SOC on education44 and second by developing interdisciplinary training courses through the GEI.35

Cases

The following 2 cases, one straightforward and the other more complex, show how the WPATH competencies can work together in the treatment of individuals who might come to the endocrinologist’s practice.

Summary

Formalized education programs in transgender health care are just beginning. Much more work is left to do, and the field is still on the ground floor when it comes to education. For example, although feedback is quite positive regarding the GEI programs, formal evidence-based outcome studies on the efficacy of the programs need to be conducted. Current plans for GEI include continued global expansion especially in the developing world and building online curricula to increase access. The vision

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    • Perspectives and Experiences of Transgender and Non-binary Individuals on Seeking Urological Care

      2021, Urology
      Citation Excerpt :

      Only 11% of participants from the USTS had their desired name and gender on all of their identifications and this present study also reflected this reality.15 Clinical exposure to TGNB health and education are lacking.6,17 A substantial portion of urology residency programs provide no education on this topic and the ones that do have largely variable content.18

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    Disclosure Statement: No financial interests for either author.

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