Trans and gender diverse people require healthcare and support just like everyone else. Our clinical needs may differ from that of our cisgender peers, both in how our identities are reflected and affirmed when accessing general healthcare, as well as when we are seeking specific gender-affirming care.
This section of TransHub is for health professionals who are seeking to strengthen the clinical care they deliver to trans patients and clients. It has been written in collaboration with leading health professionals who specialise in the healthcare and affirmation needs of trans and gender diverse people across Australia.
We worked with and are deeply grateful to the GPs, Endocrinologists, Paediatricians, Psychologists, Sexual Health Physicians, and Sexual Health Nurses who supported this work.
Supporting trans and gender diverse patients requires developing a safe, inclusive environment that goes beyond the clinical consultation itself.
Creating an effective therapeutic relationship with marginalised patients is often supported through positive interactions with other staff regardless of discipline or administrative role, as with all patients. Inclusive and affirming online and in-person booking systems, clinic paperwork, surveys, treatment or pathology request forms go a long way to establish trust. This includes letting patients know when systems or paperwork is not affirming.
Attention can also be given to ensuring inclusive promotional material and website content across your practice or organisation, with waiting areas containing supportive posters, pamphlets and health information that enables each individual to feel accepted, safe and welcomed.
This section offers ways that our practices can work to make trans people feel welcome in every part of their interaction with you, and well beyond.
Supporting trans and gender diverse patients requires developing a safe, inclusive environment that goes beyond the clinical consultation itself.
It also involves working collaboratively and holistically with trans patients.
Trans people will often have difficult or complex relationships to other aspects of health, too. Studies have shown that trans people generally have lower mental health and sexual health outcomes, due in no small part due to the discrimination they experience in health and other settings. Many trans people also have a complex relationship with their fertility and reproductive health, and our page on that subject explores the many ways that people might seek affirmation through their fertility and reproductive decisions.
This section offers practical advice regarding sexual health screening and insight into the health and wellbeing of trans people more generally.
Trans and gender diverse people have a range of health needs, just like everyone else. Some trans people, however, will want or need specific additional medical care, medication, and affirmative surgeries that relates specifically to how they’re seeking to affirm their gender.
This section of TransHub provides information, guidelines and resources to assist all clinicians, particularly General Practitioners, who are seeking to, or currently working alongside trans patients as they undertake surgery or hormonal affirmation.
For those who seek them, affirmative surgical interventions and hormone therapy are a critically important part of how trans and gender diverse people affirm their gender. Interventions are not only medically necessary, but life saving. Access to inclusive, patient-centred care is fundamental, and finding a doctor who works in partnership can make a profound difference to the lives of trans patients.
Some trans people will want to start hormones of some kind, including puberty blockers, masculinising therapies, or feminising therapies, and this is a process that can be supported by any GP in Australia, and doesn’t require specialist endocrinology, in most cases. Trans people come in all shapes, shades, sizes, ages and abilities, so individualised approaches to hormonal affirmation is important.
Some trans people will want gender affirming surgeries. These include top surgery, breast implants, facial surgery, gonad-removing surgeries like hysterectomies, and genital surgery (GRS). The type of surgical affirmation trans patients have access to will depend on their physiology, what they are able to afford, and where a surgeon is located. Many trans people travel overseas to see specific surgeons, and there is information in each of the following pages about how to support a trans patient who is travelling internationally for surgery.
Gender affirming surgery can be fundamental to health, wellbeing and social outcomes, and sexual function of many trans people. Not all trans people want, seek or can have surgery though, and being trans doesn’t necessitate surgery either. Find out more below.
This section of TransHub has been reviewed and endorsed by the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health (AusPATH), Australia’s peak body for professionals involved in the health, rights, and well-being of trans, gender diverse, and non-binary people. You can learn more about AusPATH here.
