WPATH Conference Starts Today

The 25th biennial World Professional Association for Transgender Health Conference (WPATH) is starting today in Buenos Aires, Argentina and running through November 6.

So what is WPATH?   It is a professional association headquartered in the United States devoted to the study and treatment of gender dysphoria, that was formerly known as the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association. 

 

Its mission is to promote evidence based care, education, research, advocacy, public policy, and respect in transgender health.  In addition to medical professionals and trans activists, other attendees include people working in the fields of psychology, law, social work, counseling, psychotherapy, family studies, sociology, anthropology, speech and voice therapy and sexology.

Non professionals in those fields are also welcome to join WPATH, but don't have voting privileges in the organization.

With trans communities in the US, Great Britain and elsewhere facing unprecedented facts free attacks on their humanity and human rights, this conference is happening in Argentina at a crucial time in our community's history.

Argentina has also been a leader in the last few years in passing trans supportive human rights policies and laws.

Good luck to everyone traveling to Buenos Aires for this conference, and may they all return to their home nations better informed on trans medical issues and the issues of importance to trans communities around the world.

23rd WPATH Biennial Symposium Starts Today

The World Professional Association For Transgender Health (WPATH) is gathered together in Bangkok, Thailand for their 23rd Biennial Symposium in the Land of Smiles from February 14-18 (Thailand time)

The WPATH Symposium's purpose is to present professionals working in the field of transgender health with the latest advances in research, education, clinical service, and advocacy to promote the health and well being of trans people and their families. 

You know, all that research on trans issues our haters claim doesn't exist or they wish to ignore.

The WPATH Symposium scientific program addresses topics in several areas including primary care, psychiatry, endocrinology, and surgery; psychology, social work, marriage and family therapy; sociology and anthropology; gender and sexuality; speech and voice therapy; and other related fields relevant to transgender health.  Professionals, clinicians, researchers, and academics were invited to submit before the start of the conference relevant abstracts.

The symposium will also have a variety of special panels, paper presentations, poster sessions and speakers, including some on the following topics: Children, families, and youth; ethnic/racial and cultural diversity in transgender health; transition-related services; community-based health care and community-participatory research; transgenderism in sports; legal & human rights; and the latest advances in brain research.

The theme of this 23rd WPATH Biennial Symposium is 'Transgender Health From Global Perspectives' and there are a record 523 registrants for the conference from 39 nations headed to the event from every corner of our planet to the conferences host hotel at the Anantara Bangkok Riverside Hotel.

From H-town to take part in this premier symposium on transgender health issues will be Dr. Colt Keo-Meier and the head of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Transgender Civil Rights Project and TPOCC founder Kylar Broadus will be in the WPATH house for it as well.  

When they arrive in Bangkok, they will witness plenary speakers covering topics such as Development of Sex-Reassignment Surgery in Thailand, with Preecha Tiewtranon MD; Experience of Uterus Transplantation From Mothers to Daughters, with Liza Johannesson MD, PhD; Co-Dependency as a Way of Life, with Louis Gooren MD; ICD Plenary, moderated by Gail Knudson MD; The Brain of Transsexual Persons, with Antonio Guillamon MD; and A Brief History of the Thai Kathoey: Behind the Myths and Stereotypes, with Peter Jackson PhD.Q

One of the concerns of the international trans community is next year's scheduled May 2015 World Health Organization ICD-11 revision and the recently released DSM-V one as it relates to gender diagnoses.  That subject will be addressed during the time these transgender health professionals are gathered in Bangkok.

WPATH has already called for depathologization, but just in case you missed it:

The WPATH Board of Directors strongly urges the de-psychopathologisation of gender variance worldwide. The expression of gender characteristics, including identities, that are not stereotypically associated with one’s assigned sex at birth is a common and culturally-diverse human phenomenon which should not be judged as inherently pathological or negative. The psychopathologlization of gender characteristics and identities reinforces or can prompt stigma, making prejudice and discrimination more likely, rendering transgender and transsexual people more vulnerable to social and legal marginalization and exclusion, and increasing risks to mental and physical well-being. WPATH urges governmental and medical professional organizations to review their policies and practices to eliminate stigma toward gender-variant people.

It is going to be an exciting, informative upcoming four days in Bangkok. 

According To Medical Experts, SRS Is Medically Necessary

I got into this Facebook debate two days ago with a friend of mine who is a nurse and complained about how senior citizens are treated by the US healthcare system.  

I was in agreement with her on the funding issue until she used the Kosilek case as an example in her mind of 'wasteful taxpayer spending' and compounded it by saying that SRS was medically unnecessary surgery.  

Um, flag on the play.   Did I call her on it?  You betcha.  And when I saw the same BS in a Clutch magazine article and transphobia creeping into the comment sections, called them out, too.

According to the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, World Professional Organization for Transgender Health, several professional organizations in the fields of medicine, mental health and social work and surprise, surprise insurance companies such as Aetna,  hormone replacement therapy and sex reassignment surgery are medically necessary

The decision in terms of whether we need SRS or not is up to the individual transperson, and in some cases our medical histories will dictate whether we can have it or not, but medical people who treat gender identity issues are increasingly coming to the consensus opinion that gender reassignment surgery is not a frivolous or cosmetic procedure, but a medically necessary one..

7th Edition of WPATH Standards Of Care Released

The WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) biennial conference started on September 24 and is running through the 28th in the ATL.   The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association was also having their conference in Atlanta from September 21-25. 


Since the Southern Comfort Conference, the world's largest trans conference was winding down to its conclusion as the WPATH event was cranking up at the Emory Conference Center, a launch event for the unveiling of the new 7th edition of the WPATH Standards of care was organized along with a town hall at SCC's hotel.

Dr. Walter Bockting, the outgoing president of WPATH said in an interview about the new SOC, "Some of the changes we've made really incorporate the latest science," Bockting said. "Research in this area is really increasing so it is still a growing area but there has been a boom in research publications. Our standards of care are more evidence based."

The Standards of Care were first published by WPATH in 1979 and were revised in 1980, 1981, 1990, 1998 and 2001.


In addition to making it clear that reparative therapy was unethical, here are the other highlights of the revised changes in the Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People.

• Psychotherapy is no longer a requirement to receive hormones and surgery, although it is suggested.

"It used to be a minimum amount of psychotherapy was needed. An assessment is still required but that can be done by the prescribing hormone provider," Bockting explained.

• A number of community health centers in the U.S. have developed protocols for providing hormone therapy based an approach known as the Informed Consent Model. These protocols are consistent with version 7 revisions of WPATH's standards of care.

"The SOC are flexible clinical guidelines; they allow for tailoring of interventions to the needs of the individual receiving services and for tailoring of protocols to the approach and setting in which these services are provided," Coleman explained to the GA Voice's Dyana Bagby..

"Access is more open and acknowledges transgender care is being provided in community health centers. This certainly makes it easier to access hormones," Bockting added.

• There are now different standards for surgery, as well. For example, a transgender man who wants a hysterectomy no longer has to live one year as a male in order to receive the surgery. Likewise, a transgender woman who wants her testicles removed does not have to live one year as a female.

For people who want genital reconstructive surgery, however, the standards of care recommend living a year in the role of the gender they are transitioning.

• Another major change, Bockting explained, is that the standards "allow for a broader spectrum of identities – they are no longer so binary."

The changes are indeed great news for the trans community and takes us another huge step closer toward depathologizing medical care for gender issues.

WPATH Statements On Several Important Trans Issues

TransGriot Note: In case you're wondering what is WPATH's stance on some of the issues impacting trans people, they haven't exactly been twiddling their thumbs as we have been fighting around the world for human rights coverage.   They have made their positions clear about several issues of concern to us.


June 16, 2010    (Identity Documents)

The Board of Directors of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), in the interest of the health and well-being of transgender and transsexual people world-wide, issued today, 16 June 2010, the following identity recognition statement:
No person should have to undergo surgery or accept sterilization as a condition of identity recognition.  If a sex marker is required on an identity document, that marker could recognize the person’s lived gender, regardless of reproductive capacity.  The WPATH Board of Directors urges governments and other authoritative bodies to move to eliminate requirements for identity recognition that require surgical procedures.



May 26, 2010  (De-Psychopathologization of Gender Variance)


The WPATH Board of Directors strongly urges the de-psychopathologisation of gender variance worldwide. The expression of gender characteristics, including identities, that are not stereotypically associated with one’s assigned sex at birth is a common and culturally-diverse human phenomenon which should not be judged as inherently pathological or negative. The psychopathologlisation of gender characteristics and identities reinforces or can prompt stigma, making prejudice and discrimination more likely, rendering transgender and transsexual people more vulnerable to social and legal marginalisation and exclusion, and increasing risks to mental and physical well-being. WPATH urges governmental and medical professional organizations to review their policies and practices to eliminate stigma toward gender-variant people.”

May 25, 2010  (DSM V)

The WPATH Board of Directors and the Chairs of the DSM Consensus Building Process Work Group of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, would like to thank all those who contributed their expertise to draft our formal response to the proposed DSM 5 Criteria for Gender Incongruence.

To view WPATH’s response, please click on this link.