October 5, 2011
posted by Sebastian
Transgender People, Transitioning and Those Darn Standards of Care
http://www.autostraddle.com/transgender-people-and-those-darn-standards-of-care-113430/Before I sought gender transition, I had never heard of the Standards of Care (SOC), so I'm going to guess that most of you are in the same boat I was in. The SOC is a very important document in the trans world and in the field of trans healthcare. They are nonbinding (aka not mandated) protocols from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) outlining how clinicians in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, medicine (both primary care and endocrinologists, aka hormones), and surgery should best treat transgender patients.
They've been around since 1979 and doctors who have been "progressive" enough to work with trans patients have largely adopted the SOC as a rigid policy guideline. A lot has changed in terms of the view of trans people, their needs, et cetera, in the past 30 years, so as you can imagine, there have been a number of revisions. However, until the 7th version was released this week (more on that later), the last revision (Version 6) was in 2001. Yikes! I know.
It was definitely outdated, and had a real love/hate relationship with the trans community.
