The reality of being transgender in medicine

What does it mean to be transgender?

Most people go through life being comfortable with the legal gender they’re assigned at birth. Transgender people, however, realise at some point in their life that this assigned gender does not accurately reflect their experience of gender. They may feel that they are another gender—for example, someone who was assigned male gender may realise that she is a woman. Alternatively, they may realise that they are neither completely a woman nor completely a man, and this diverse group of identities is collectively known as non-binary. About one in 200 people, according to a US study, are transgender1 and ignorance of transgender issues is widespread, in general society and within medicine.

NHS transgender care

The Trans Mental Health Study (TMHS),2 which surveyed almost 1000 trans people in the United Kingdom, found that 61% think that they have to go out of their way to educate health professionals about trans health issues. This can put trans people in a difficult situation because the professionals they are turning to for help often know less about trans issues than they do.

Although the role of the expert patient is on the rise, nobody would expect …