The 7th version of the WPATH Standards of Care for transgender individuals have just been announced. In brief, we will no longer be required to have psychotherapy for hormones or surgery, but an assessment will have to be performed by the hormone provider. Therapy is suggested though. An orchi or hysterectomy will no longer require any RLE time, but SRS will still require the year. The SOC is generally more flexible to accommodate those of us who do not fall along the gender binary eg. if you are gender queer, you do not need to be on hormones to have your breasts removed. Finally, being transgender is no longer a pathology. It is NOT Gender Identity Disorder. Here is a link to an article with a bit more detail.

http://www.thegavoice.com/index.php/news/national-news/3497-wpath-announces-new-standards-of-care-for-transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-people

I have been reading it.
No critique yet.

anxious to the the actually summary and not just an overview but it looks really good from the comments.

I wonder when these become "effective" ?

Has any one got a physical link to the actual the 7th version of the SOC

Kind regards
Sarah B

This is really amazing! A cause for celebration ladies!

I have found one from here SOC

Kind regards
Sarah B

Woooohoooo!

YAY!

Cool beans!     

Thanks for sharing.

Doesn't really change anything if you're not transgender though...and as horrible as this sound I think it runs the risk of turning what are quite major surgeries into little more than body modifications. 

This is a copy of the e-mail that was forwarded to me that gives a summary of some of the major revisions:

You can find the new Standards of Care for transgender people at
http://www.thisishow.org/Files/soc7.pdf

====================

Exciting News for Trans Clients!
Also on:http://www.thecounselinghut.org/SOCv7.shtml
Jordan Shin, MS, LPC

On September 25, 2011, World Professional Organization for Transgender
Health (WPATH) http://wpath.org/ announced the launching of the new
Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender
Nonconforming People, 7th edition (SOCv7). The new SOCv7 is a significant
revision of the Standards of Care (SOC) in structure, philosophy, and
language that was four years in the making, with a new emphasis on
provider responsibility that replaces previous emphasis on client
responsibility. If you are a member of the trans and allies community,
please let as many people know as possible about this change. If you are
working with a medical or mental health professional, please let them know
that the new SOC is a significant revision. The document itself will be
available on the WPATH Web site on September 26, 2011.

Here is a summary of changes:

1. Removal of the phrase "Gender Identity Disorder" from the title. This
document is no longer about the treatment of a "disorder", but about the
prevention and treatment of distress experienced by transsexual,
transgender, and gender nonconforming people. SOCv7 emphasizes that gender
nonconformity or variance is not a pathology, but an identity.

2. Emphasis on how to provide holistic healthcare for transsexual,
transgender, and gender nonconforming people. It is no longer "just about
hormones and surgery". It discusses treatments "beyond hormones and
surgery", such as preventive and primary care, post-operative care, mental
health concerns, eTherapy, voice and communication coaching, and
reproductive health. An overview of medical risks of hormone therapies is
included as well.

3. Emphasis on what professionals need to do, not what patients need to
prove or achieve to get gender-related care. SOCv7 makes it clear that
reparative therapy for gender concerns is<i>unethical</i>.

4. Emphasis on harm reduction and informed consent, rather than
"gatekeeping". It emphasizes that the SOC needs to be applied flexibly and
in response to individual needs, and adapted to the needs of different
communities around the world.

5. Simplified, more humanized transitioning process:
--No more "triadic sequence".
--No more distinction between "eligibility" and "readiness".
--No mention of "real life experience", although living "continuously for
at least 12 months in the gender role that is congruent with their gender
identity" still is recommended before genital surgery.
--Allowance for medical gender specialists, rather than just mental health
professionals, to recommend hormone therapy.
--No more distinction between master's level and doctoral level mental
health professionals for surgery recommendation.

Perhaps most importantly, unlike the previous SOCs, SOCv7 is fully
"evidence based", and scientific data supporting its recommendations are
included in the new references section and a review of literature.

The revision was an unprecedentedly multidisciplinary process involving
medical, mental health, and legal professionals, as well as community
members and activists, and panels of advisors from across the world. While
it does not, and could not, meet the needs of everyone across the globe,
it provides a foundation that can be readily adapted to different
cultural, social, and national contexts.

Please do not hesitate to contact Jordan Shin
at info@thecounselinghut.org if you
have any questions.

According to page 104 and forward hormones and surgeries require

"1. Persistent, well-documented gender dysphoria;"

That gives a lot of power to the psych*s in deciding what is persistent and well-documented. With some GIC's i.e. the Danish one requiring life long display of crossgender behaviour we can no longer argue that SoC requires only a 3 month RLE.

According to the criteria hysterectomy no longer requires psychiatric referral. With a lot of countries world wide allowing legal recognition of transmen who undergo hysterectomy yet requiring transwomen to undergo vaginoplasty this instills massive discrimination!

I look forward to reading through the whole document, but for now I hope version 7.1 will soon be released!

Quote from: Gravity's Child on September 26, 2011, 09:19:14 AM
Doesn't really change anything if you're not transgender though...and as horrible as this sound I think it runs the risk of turning what are quite major surgeries into little more than body modifications.

I disagree. I think this is a step in the right direction in acknowledging that few trans people actually have SRS because most of us can't afford it. And this is especially the case for transmen as it's far more expensive for them than it is for us. Only those who are sufficiently class privileged can afford SRS. In fact, this will only be more and more the case as the socioeconomic inequality in this country continues to grow. In other words, to emphasize SRS, is to privilege the already class privileged at the expense and neglect of the rest of us, and it is, in fact, to ignore the reality that most trans people don't have SRS.

Quote from: valyn_faer on September 26, 2011, 09:43:12 AM
I disagree. I think this is a step in the right direction in acknowledging that few trans people actually have SRS because most of us can't afford it. And this is especially the case for transmen as it's far more expensive for them than it is for us. Only those who are sufficiently class privileged can afford SRS. In fact, this will only be more and more the case as the socioeconomic inequality in this country continues to grow. In other words, to emphasize SRS, is to privilege the already class privileged at the expense and neglect of the rest of us, and it is, in fact, to ignore the reality that most trans people don't have SRS.

I assume you're talking specifically about people in the US here? WPATH is intended to be a worldwide guideline, and applicable to a wide range of differing systems of healthcare around the world.

Quote from: Padma on September 26, 2011, 10:00:35 AM
I assume you're talking specifically about people in the US here? WPATH is intended to be a worldwide guideline, and applicable to a wide range of differing systems of healthcare around the world.

If you talk world wide the percentage who get SRS probably plummets. The vast majority of the world's people are poor people living in third world countries who have neither the financial resources to afford SRS nor any sort of national health care system.

Sort of my point - that the WPATH document acknowledges people's desire for SRS (when they have such a desire) regardless of whether they're in a position to have it, by focusing on dysphoria as the common factor.

So, to understand, I should be able to go to Thailand and have SRS with Suporn without a letter from a gender therapist? A letter from my HRT doctor will be sufficient? And I've been full time 4 years now.

Quote from: JenJen2011 on September 26, 2011, 10:15:36 AM
So, to understand, I should be able to go to Thailand and have SRS with Suporn without a letter from a gender therapist? A letter from my HRT doctor will be sufficient? And I've been full time 4 years now.

That would entirely depend on Suporn or Suporn's insurance company. The SOC is non-binding.

Aye, SoC and WPATH are guidelines - each country/state/clinic/psychiatrist/surgeon still makes up their own rules and then flexes them or not depending on the individual.