Transgender patients: Providing sensitive care
What to say? What to prescribe? When to refer? The authors offer advice on how best to communicate with and treat this unique patient population.
Beginning the transition
The transitioning process is a complex and individualized journey that can include inward or outward change, or both.
For patients interested in medical interventions, possible therapies include cross-sex hormone administration and gender-affirming surgery. Both are aimed at making the physical and the psychological more congruent. Hormone treatment (TABLE 2)10,11,21 is often essential to reduce the distress of individuals with GD and to help them feel comfortable in their own body. Psychological conditions, such as depression, tend to improve as the transitioning process gets underway.22
