Trans Medicine

**Finalist, PROSE Award in Clinical Medicine** A rich examination of the history of trans medicine and current day practice Surfacing in the mid-twentieth century, yet shrouded in social stigma, transgender medicine is now a rapidly growing medical field. In Trans Medicine, stef shuster makes an important intervention in how we understand the development of this field and how it is being used to “treat” gender identity today. Drawing on interviews with medical providers as well as ethnographic and archival research, shuster examines how health professionals approach patients who seek gender-affirming care. From genital reconstructions to hormone injections, the practice of trans medicine charts new medical ground, compelling medical professionals to plan treatments without widescale clinical trials to back them up. Relying on cultural norms and gut instincts to inform their treatment plans, shuster shows how medical providers’ lack of clinical experience and scientific research undermines their ability to interact with patients, craft treatment plans, and make medical decisions. This situation defies how providers are trained to work with patients and creates uncertainty. As providers navigate the developing knowledge surrounding the medical care of trans folk, Trans Medicine offers a rare opportunity to understand how providers make decisions while facing challenges to their expertise and, in the process, have acquired authority not only over clinical outcomes, but over gender itself.

Although transgender persons have been present in various societies throughout human history, it is only during the last several years that they have become widely acknowledged in our society and their right to quality medical care has been established. In the United States, endocrinologists have been providing hormonal therapy for transgender individuals for decades; however, until recently, there has been only limited literature on this subject, and non-endocrine aspects of medical care for transgender individual have not been well addressed in the endocrine literature. The goal of this volume is not only to address the latest in hormonal therapy for transgender individuals (including pediatric and geriatric age groups), but also to familiarize the reader with other aspects of transgender care, including primary and surgical care, fertility preservation, and the management of HIV infection. In addition to medical issues, psychological, social, ethical and legal issues pertinent to transgender individuals add to the complexities of successful treatment of these patients. A final chapter includes extensive additional resources for both transgender patients and providers. Thus, an endocrinologist providing care to a transgender person will be able to use this single resource to address most of the patient’s needs. While Transgender Medicine is intended primarily for endocrinologists, this book will be also useful to primary care physicians, surgeons providing gender-confirming procedures, mental health professionals participating in the care of transgender persons, and medical residents and students.

A rich examination of the history of trans medicine and current day practice Surfacing in the mid-twentieth century, yet shrouded in social stigma, transgender medicine is now a rapidly growing medical field. In Trans Medicine, stef shuster makes an important intervention in how we understand the development of this field and how it is being used to "treat" gender identity today. Drawing on interviews with medical providers as well as ethnographic and archival research, shuster examines how health professionals approach patients who seek gender-affirming care. From genital reconstructions to hormone injections, the practice of trans medicine charts new medical ground, compelling medical professionals to plan treatments without widescale clinical trials to back them up. Relying on cultural norms and gut instincts to inform their treatment plans, shuster shows how medical providers' lack of clinical experience and scientific research undermines their ability to interact with patients, craft treatment plans, and make medical decisions. This situation defies how providers are trained to work with patients and creates uncertainty. As providers navigate the developing knowledge surrounding the medical care of trans folk, Trans Medicine offers a rare opportunity to understand how providers make decisions while facing challenges to their expertise and, in the process, have acquired authority not only over clinical outcomes, but over gender itself.

At a time when lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals--often referred to under the umbrella acronym LGBT--are becoming more visible in society and more socially acknowledged, clinicians and researchers are faced with incomplete information about their health status. While LGBT populations often are combined as a single entity for research and advocacy purposes, each is a distinct population group with its own specific health needs. Furthermore, the experiences of LGBT individuals are not uniform and are shaped by factors of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographical location, and age, any of which can have an effect on health-related concerns and needs. The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People assesses the state of science on the health status of LGBT populations, identifies research gaps and opportunities, and outlines a research agenda for the National Institute of Health. The report examines the health status of these populations in three life stages: childhood and adolescence, early/middle adulthood, and later adulthood. At each life stage, the committee studied mental health, physical health, risks and protective factors, health services, and contextual influences. To advance understanding of the health needs of all LGBT individuals, the report finds that researchers need more data about the demographics of these populations, improved methods for collecting and analyzing data, and an increased participation of sexual and gender minorities in research. The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People is a valuable resource for policymakers, federal agencies including the National Institute of Health (NIH), LGBT advocacy groups, clinicians, and service providers.

The first case-based comprehensive textbook to address the unique health care needs of transgender and gender diverse adults A Doody's Core Title for 2023! Demand for state-of-the-art health care services for transgender and gender diverse communities is rapidly increasing. Transgender and Gender Diverse Health Care: The Fenway Guide offers a roadmap for clinicians to provide culturally responsive care that meets the primary, preventive, and specialty health needs of transgender and gender diverse adult patients. With the most up-to-date scientific and clinical information, this practical guide reviews new data on terminology, demographics, and epidemiology; highlights key aspects of gender identity emergence across the lifespan; and provides guidance on both hormonal and surgical gender affirmation. Applying a health-equity model of care, this invaluable resource offers a foundation for clinicians when addressing health needs of transgender and gender diverse communities. Transgender and Gender Diverse Health Care: The Fenway Guide features essential information that includes the following topics and more: The history and epidemiology of transgender and gender diverse health care Primary, preventive, and specialty care considerations for transgender and gender diverse patients Hormonal, surgical and non-medical gender affirmation Trauma-informed and gender-affirming care Behavior health, eating disorders and body positivity Reproductive health, obstetrical care, and family building Treatment of HIV and sexually transmitted infections Community building, advocacy and partnership

A groundbreaking twentieth-century history of transgender children With transgender rights front and center in American politics, media, and culture, the pervasive myth still exists that today’s transgender children are a brand new generation—pioneers in a field of new obstacles and hurdles. Histories of the Transgender Child shatters this myth, uncovering a previously unknown twentieth-century history when transgender children not only existed but preexisted the term transgender and its predecessors, playing a central role in the medicalization of trans people, and all sex and gender. Beginning with the early 1900s when children with “ambiguous” sex first sought medical attention, to the 1930s when transgender people began to seek out doctors involved in altering children’s sex, to the invention of the category gender, and finally the 1960s and ’70s when, as the field institutionalized, transgender children began to take hormones, change their names, and even access gender confirmation, Julian Gill-Peterson reconstructs the medicalization and racialization of children’s bodies. Throughout, they foreground the racial history of medicine that excludes black and trans of color children through the concept of gender’s plasticity, placing race at the center of their analysis and at the center of transgender studies. Until now, little has been known about early transgender history and life and its relevance to children. Using a wealth of archival research from hospitals and clinics, including incredible personal letters from children to doctors, as well as scientific and medical literature, this book reaches back to the first half of the twentieth century—a time when the category transgender was not available but surely existed, in the lives of children and parents.

This text starts with the history of transgender science and provides current, evidence-based information on theories and treatment procedures, concluding with projections of future scientific developments. A transgender person is one whose congruent gender behavior (e.g., masculine, feminine, genderqueer) does not match the culturally assigned gender category based on their sex at birth. For example, a transgender person may behave and present as a woman despite being born with male genitalia.This book provides background on transgender history, needs, assessment, and procedures; side effects of procedures; and outcomes that all providers need to understand to treat transgender patients and relate to their particular expectations. The current etiquette basis for establishing an effective provider-patient relationship is highlighted. Pathological terms are no longer acceptable and new non-pathological terms are rapidly replacing them, because being transgender is now recognized as a natural part of diversity rather than a disease or disorder. Also included here are new theories of causation and treatment approaches for providers.The book additionally outlines current and earlier schools of thought and provides an integrated theory of transgender causation that includes genetic, epigenetic, cultural, and early learning/emergence factors and highlights research needs and expected future research topics.

NAMED A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2021 BY THE TIMES AND THE SUNDAY TIMES "Irreversible Damage . . . has caused a storm. Abigail Shrier, a Wall Street Journal writer, does something simple yet devastating: she rigorously lays out the facts." —Janice Turner, The Times of London Until just a few years ago, gender dysphoria—severe discomfort in one’s biological sex—was vanishingly rare. It was typically found in less than .01 percent of the population, emerged in early childhood, and afflicted males almost exclusively. But today whole groups of female friends in colleges, high schools, and even middle schools across the country are coming out as “transgender.” These are girls who had never experienced any discomfort in their biological sex until they heard a coming-out story from a speaker at a school assembly or discovered the internet community of trans “influencers.” Unsuspecting parents are awakening to find their daughters in thrall to hip trans YouTube stars and “gender-affirming” educators and therapists who push life-changing interventions on young girls—including medically unnecessary double mastectomies and puberty blockers that can cause permanent infertility. Abigail Shrier, a writer for the Wall Street Journal, has dug deep into the trans epidemic, talking to the girls, their agonized parents, and the counselors and doctors who enable gender transitions, as well as to “detransitioners”—young women who bitterly regret what they have done to themselves. Coming out as transgender immediately boosts these girls’ social status, Shrier finds, but once they take the first steps of transition, it is not easy to walk back. She offers urgently needed advice about how parents can protect their daughters. A generation of girls is at risk. Abigail Shrier’s essential book will help you understand what the trans craze is and how you can inoculate your child against it—or how to retrieve her from this dangerous path.