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

Transgender women's perspectives on mental health care related to vaginoplasty for gender affirmation

PURPOSE

This study aimed to describe patient experiences and attitudes about the role of the mental health professional as it relates to pursuing gender affirmation surgery.

METHODS

This was a mixed-models study with semi-structured interviews. Participants who presented for gender affirming vaginoplasty and had completed pre-surgical requirements but had not yet had the procedure were invited to participate in the study. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted from November 2019 and December 2020 until saturation of themes was achieved at a sample size of 14. Interviews were then transcribed verbatim and coded by theme. Qualitative analysis was performed using a grounded theory approach.

RESULTS

Almost half of the patients did not identify any barriers to obtaining mental health care, but a majority brought up concerns for less advantaged peers, with less access to resources. Some patients also felt that there was benefit to be obtained from the mental health care required before going through with surgery, while others felt the requirements were discriminatory. Finally, a large proportion of our participants reported concerns with the role of mental health care and the requirements set forth by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), and patients gave suggestions for future improvements including decreasing barriers to care while rethinking how guidelines impact patients.

CONCLUSION

There are many competing goals to balance when it comes to the guidelines for gender affirmation surgery, and patients had differing and complex relationships with mental health care and the pre-surgical process.

Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8

Background: Transgender healthcare is a rapidly evolving interdisciplinary field. In the last decade, there has been an unprecedented increase in the number and visibility of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people seeking support and gender-affirming medical treatment in parallel with a significant rise in the scientific literature in this area. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) is an international, multidisciplinary, professional association whose mission is to promote evidence-based care, education, research, public policy, and respect in transgender health. One of the main functions of WPATH is to promote the highest standards of health care for TGD people through the Standards of Care (SOC). The SOC was initially developed in 1979 and the last version (SOC-7) was published in 2012. In view of the increasing scientific evidence, WPATH commissioned a new version of the Standards of Care, the SOC-8. Aim: The overall goal of SOC-8 is to provide health care professionals (HCPs) with clinical guidance to assist TGD people in accessing safe and effective pathways to achieving lasting personal comfort with their gendered selves with the aim of optimizing their overall physical health, psychological well-being, and self-fulfillment. Methods: The SOC-8 is based on the best available science and expert professional consensus in transgender health. International professionals and stakeholders were selected to serve on the SOC-8 committee. Recommendation statements were developed based on data derived from independent systematic literature reviews, where available, background reviews and expert opinions. Grading of recommendations was based on the available evidence supporting interventions, a discussion of risks and harms, as well as the feasibility and acceptability within different contexts and country settings. Results: A total of 18 chapters were developed as part of the SOC-8. They contain recommendations for health care professionals who provide care and treatment for TGD people. Each of the recommendations is followed by explanatory text with relevant references. General areas related to transgender health are covered in the chapters Terminology, Global Applicability, Population Estimates, and Education. The chapters developed for the diverse population of TGD people include Assessment of Adults, Adolescents, Children, Nonbinary, Eunuchs, and Intersex Individuals, and people living in Institutional Environments. Finally, the chapters related to gender-affirming treatment are Hormone Therapy, Surgery and Postoperative Care, Voice and Communication, Primary Care, Reproductive Health, Sexual Health, and Mental Health. Conclusions: The SOC-8 guidelines are intended to be flexible to meet the diverse health care needs of TGD people globally. While adaptable, they offer standards for promoting optimal health care and guidance for the treatment of people experiencing gender incongruence. As in all previous versions of the SOC, the criteria set forth in this document for gender-affirming medical interventions are clinical guidelines; individual health care professionals and programs may modify these in consultation with the TGD person.

Readiness assessments for gender-affirming surgical treatments: A systematic scoping review of historical practices and changing ethical considerations

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) are terms that refer to individuals whose gender identity differs from sex assigned at birth. TGD individuals may choose any variety of modifications to their gender expression including, but not limited to changing their name, clothing, or hairstyle, starting hormones, or undergoing surgery. Starting in the 1950s, surgeons and endocrinologists began treating what was then known as transsexualism with cross sex hormones and a variety of surgical procedures collectively known as sex reassignment surgery (SRS). Soon after, Harry Benjamin began work to develop standards of care that could be applied to these patients with some uniformity. These guidelines, published by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), are in their 8th iteration. Through each iteration there has been a requirement that patients requesting gender-affirming hormones (GAH) or gender-affirming surgery (GAS) undergo one or more detailed evaluations by a mental health provider through which they must obtain a "letter of readiness," placing mental health providers in the role of gatekeeper. WPATH specifies eligibility criteria for gender-affirming treatments and general guidelines for the content of letters, but does not include specific details about what must be included, leading to a lack of uniformity in how mental health providers approach performing evaluations and writing letters. This manuscript aims to review practices related to evaluations and letters of readiness for GAS in adults over time as the standards of care have evolved via a scoping review of the literature. We will place a particular emphasis on changing ethical considerations over time and the evolution of the model of care from gatekeeping to informed consent. To this end, we did an extensive review of the literature. We identified a trend across successive iterations of the guidelines in both reducing stigma against TGD individuals and shift in ethical considerations from "do no harm" to the core principle of patient autonomy. This has helped reduce barriers to care and connect more people who desire it to gender affirming care (GAC), but in these authors' opinions does not go far enough in reducing barriers.

Experiences of surgery readiness assessments in British Columbia

Background: A surgical readiness assessment is a major step in the medical journey of trans people seeking gender-affirming surgery. Much of the peer-reviewed literature surrounding surgical readiness assessments emphasizes the perspectives of academics and clinicians, leaving the voices of trans and gender diverse patients largely unheard. Aims: This paper foregrounds patient experiences with surgery readiness assessments to discuss the tensions, challenges and opportunities they generate. Methods: We conducted a thematic analysis of 35 in-depth interviews with trans people who accessed or were seeking to access gender-affirming surgery in British Columbia. Results: We developed three main themes to capture participants' narratives of their surgical assessment experiences. The first, assessments as gatekeeping, explores the stories of people who described their assessments as outdated and even discriminatory processes. The second, assessments as a barrier to care, discusses the informational missteps, bureaucratic regulations, economic issues, and geographic concerns that made assessments difficult to access. The third, assessments as useful, includes positive stories about assessments that often involved feeling supported by an assessor and feeling prepared for the next steps. Discussion: These narratives demonstrate how much variation exists among people's experiences of readiness assessments for gender-affirming surgery. No matter how their actual assessment turned out, many participants approached their appointments with a great deal of anxiety and trepidation. We attributed this stress was to challenges ranging from lengthy wait times, arbitrary medical gatekeeping, a lack of access to knowledgeable and supportive providers, unclear or changing administrative processes, and insufficient communication. To address these challenges, it is crucial for the medical system to create more accessible pathways with centralized, up-to-date information for people trying to access assessments. Patients are best served by multi-disciplinary gender-affirming teams that provide individualized care.

Protocols as curriculum? Learning health advocacy skills by working with transgender patients in the context of gender-affirming medicine

Evidenced by leading journals in academic medicine, health professions education has taken up the call to advance equitable healthcare. One pressing area where gaps and inequities are apparent is transgender (trans) people's access to gender-affirming medicine such as hormones and surgeries. Reasons for the dire state of care include education gaps. While specific content knowledge has been identified as lacking in medical school curricula, less research has focused on the complex social practices required of clinicians and educators working in gender-affirming medicine, and how these skills are learned through practice. In order to inform health professions education in this key area of need, we conducted a study to better understand the social practices, and the learning that occurs therein, of gender-affirming medicine. We identified the work processes of 22 clinicians, clinician-educators, trans patients, and clinical care administrators with attention to how policies and protocols influenced practice, learning, and teaching. The results of our study elucidate: (1) that practicing of gender-affirming medicine is strictly dictated by standardized assessment protocols, which serve as a form of curriculum; and (2) how health professionals learn and teach health advocacy as a form of resistance to protocols identified as creating inequities. These findings suggest an opportunity to view protocols-and their inherent limitations-more deliberately as teaching and learning tools, specifically for learning advocacy.

Hormone replacement therapy: informed consent without assessment?

Florence Ashley has argued that requiring patients with gender dysphoria to undergo an assessment and referral from a mental health professional before undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is unethical and may represent an unconscious hostility towards transgender people. We respond, first, by showing that Ashley has conflated the self-reporting of symptoms with self-diagnosis, and that this is not consistent with the standard model of informed consent to medical treatment. Second, we note that the model of informed consent involved in cosmetic surgery resembles the model Ashley defends, and that psychological assessment and referral is recognised as an important aspect of such a model. Third, we suggest that the increased prevalence of psychiatric morbidity in the transgender population arguably supports the requirement of assessment and referral from a mental health professional prior to undergoing HRT.

Ethical Issues Considered When Establishing a Pediatrics Gender Surgery Center

As part of establishing a gender surgery center at a pediatric academic hospital, we undertook a process of identifying key ethical, legal, and contextual issues through collaboration among clinical providers, review by hospital leadership, discussions with key staff and hospital support services, consultation with the hospital's ethics committee, outreach to other institutions providing transgender health care, and meetings with hospital legal counsel. This process allowed the center to identify key issues, formulate approaches to resolving those issues, and develop policies and procedures addressing stakeholder concerns. Key issues identified during the process included the appropriateness of providing gender-affirming surgeries to adolescents and adults, given the hospital's mission and emphasis on pediatric services; the need for education on the clinical basis for offered procedures; methods for obtaining adequate informed consent and assent; the lower and upper acceptable age limits for various procedures; the role of psychological assessments in determining surgical eligibility; the need for coordinated, multidisciplinary patient care; and the importance of addressing historical access inequities affecting transgender patients. The process also facilitated the development of policies addressing the identified issues, articulation of a guiding mission statement, institution of ongoing educational opportunities for hospital staff, beginning outreach to the community, and guidance as to future avenues of research and policy development. Given the sensitive nature of the center's services and the significant clinical, ethical, and legal issues involved, we recommend such a process when a establishing a program for gender surgery in a pediatric institution.

Recommending or Rejecting "the Dimple": WPATH-Affiliated Medical Professionals' Experiences and Attitudes Toward Gender-Confirming Vulvoplasty in Transgender Women

INTRODUCTION

Rising numbers of trans women are undergoing genital surgeries, such as vulvoplasty or vulvovaginoplasty, to create a neovagina. Medical professionals who adhere to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care, Version 7, and who recommend or perform these procedures, are expected to balance best practices with patient preferences, specifically the decision to create or omit the vaginal canal. Due to a paucity of literature on gender-confirming vulvoplasty (GCV) in trans women, there has been no documentation of factors that prompt practitioners to reject or recommend the procedure.

AIM

The aim of the study was to provide descriptive data of WPATH-affiliated medical professionals' knowledge, experiences, and attitudes toward GCV; surgical risks, benefits, and any considerations when referring transgender women 18-21 years of age for this procedure.

METHODS

Purposive sampling of all physicians, surgeons, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and registered nurses listed in the WPATH membership directory was initiated via invitational e-mails. The 32-item survey focused on demographics, medical practices, surgical techniques, and reasons for recommending or rejecting the procedure. Data analysis included frequencies and Pearson's χ² test.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Key outcome measures included frequency of cases performed; reasons for recommending, rejecting, or performing GCV; and differences in attitudes toward the procedure among various medical professionals.

RESULTS

N = 198 (20.7%) of 956 solicited professionals completed the survey. Surgeons (n = 61) comprised 30.8% of the total sample. 46 surgeons (76.7%) reported having performed vulvovaginoplasty, and 25 (41.7%) had performed GCV. "Patient request" was the most common reason for recommending or performing GCV. Surgeons were more likely to either agree and perform (30.4%), or reject (32.1%) GCV in a patient aged 18-21 than other practitioners, who were more likely to be "unsure" (68.5%). These differences were statistically significant (χ² = 16.467 [2]; n = 193; P < .001).

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

The data identify a lack of standardized terminology and surgical techniques concerning GCV.

STRENGTH & LIMITATIONS

This is the first exploratory study to assess medical practitioner experiences and attitudes toward a seldom documented procedure. A larger, more inclusive sample would increase the statistical strength and representative aspect of the study.

CONCLUSION

The study shows divergence in attitudes and knowledge among medical practitioners who recommend or perform GCV, and uncertainty when the patient is 18-21 years old. The study contributes to an expanded description and specific indications of performing GCV in the updated WPATH SOC Version 8. Milrod C, Monto M, Karasic DH. Recommending or Rejecting "the Dimple": WPATH-Affiliated Medical Professionals' Experiences and Attitudes Toward Gender-Confirming Vulvoplasty in Transgender Women. J Sex Med 2019;16:586-595.

Past and Future Challenges Associated with Standards of Care for Gender Transitioning Clients

This article defines a standard of care, describes their purpose in general, and then provides an overview of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People Version 7. After a brief history of the document, past and future challenges associated with these Standards including ideas moving forward into the eighth version are presented.

Removing transgender identity from the classification of mental disorders: a Mexican field study for ICD-11

BACKGROUND

The conceptualisation of transgender identity as a mental disorder has contributed to precarious legal status, human rights violations, and barriers to appropriate health care among transgender people. The proposed reconceptualisation of categories related to transgender identity in WHO's forthcoming International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-11 removes categories related to transgender identity from the classification of mental disorders, in part based on the idea that these conditions do not satisfy the definitional requirements of mental disorders. We aimed to determine whether distress and impairment, considered essential characteristics of mental disorders, could be explained by experiences of social rejection and violence rather than being inherent features of transgender identity, and to examine the applicability of other elements of the proposed ICD-11 diagnostic guidelines.

METHODS

This field study used a retrospective interview design in a purposive sample of transgender adults (aged >18 years or older) receiving health-care services at the Condesa Specialised Clinic in Mexico City, Mexico. Participants completed a detailed structured interview focusing on sociodemographic characteristics, medical history related to gender identity, and, during a specific period of adolescence, key concepts related to gender identity diagnoses as proposed for ICD-11 and from DSM-5 and ICD-10, psychological distress, functional impairment, social rejection, and violence. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics and univariate comparisons and multivariate logistic regression models predicting distress and dysfunction.

FINDINGS

Between April 1, 2014, and Aug 17, 2014, 260 transgender adults were approached and 250 were enrolled in the study and completed the interview. Most (n=202 [81%]) had been assigned a male sex at birth. Participants reported first awareness of transgender identity at a mean age of 5·6 years (SD 2·5, range 2-17), and 184 (74%) had used health interventions for body transformation, most commonly hormones (182 [73%)], with the first such intervention at a mean age of 25·0 years (SD 9·1, range 10-54). 84 (46%) of those who had used hormones did so initially without medical supervision. During adolescence, distress related to gender identity was very common, but not universal (n=208 [83%]), and average level of distress was quite high among those who reported it (79·9 on a scale of 0 [none at all] to 100 [extreme], SD 20·7, range 20-100). Most participants (n=226 [90%] reported experiencing family, social, or work or scholastic dysfunction related to their gender identity, but this was typically moderate (on a scale of 0 [not at all disrupted] to 10 [extremely disrupted], family dysfunction mean 5·3 [SD 3·9, range 0-10]; social dysfunction mean 5·0 [SD 3·8, range 0-10]; work or scholastic dysfunction mean 4·8 [SD 3·6, range 0-10]). Multivariate logistic regression models indicated that distress and all types of dysfunction were strongly predicted by experiences of social rejection (odds ratios [ORs] 2·29-8·15) and violence (1·99-3·99). A current male gender identity also predicted distress (OR 3·90). Of the indicators of gender incongruence, only asking to be treated as a different gender was a significant predictor, and only of work or scholastic dysfunction (OR 1·82).

INTERPRETATION

This study provides additional support for classifying health-related categories related to transgender identity outside the classification of mental disorders in the ICD-11. The reconceptualisation and related reclassification of transgender-related health conditions in the ICD-11 could serve as a useful instrument in the discussion of public health policies aimed at increasing access to appropriate services and reducing the victimisation of transgender people.

FUNDING

National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, Mexico.

Sociodemographic Variables, Clinical Features, and the Role of Preassessment Cross-Sex Hormones in Older Trans People

INTRODUCTION

As referrals to gender identity clinics have increased dramatically over the last few years, no studies focusing on older trans people seeking treatment are available.

AIMS

The aim of this study was to investigate the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of older trans people attending a national service and to investigate the influence of cross-sex hormones (CHT) on psychopathology.

METHODS

Individuals over the age of 50 years old referred to a national gender identity clinic during a 30-month period were invited to complete a battery of questionnaires to measure psychopathology and clinical characteristics. Individuals on cross-sex hormones prior to the assessment were compared with those not on treatment for different variables measuring psychopathology.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Sociodemographic and clinical variables and measures of depression and anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale), victimization (Experiences of Transphobia Scale), social support (Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support), interpersonal functioning (Inventory of Interpersonal Problems), and nonsuicidal self-injury (Self-Injury Questionnaire).

RESULTS

The sex ratio of trans females aged 50 years and older compared to trans males was 23.7:1. Trans males were removed for the analysis due to their small number (n = 3). Participants included 71 trans females over the age of 50, of whom the vast majority were white, employed or retired, and divorced and had children. Trans females on CHT who came out as trans and transitioned at an earlier age were significantly less anxious, reported higher levels of self-esteem, and presented with fewer socialization problems. When controlling for socialization problems, differences in levels of anxiety but not self-esteem remained.

CONCLUSION

The use of cross-sex hormones prior to seeking treatment is widespread among older trans females and appears to be associated with psychological benefits. Existing barriers to access CHT for older trans people may need to be re-examined.