#wpath soc

Long and important post incoming, please read & share. I will include a tl;dr at the end!

A lovely anon has informed me that WPATH (The World Professional Association for Transgender Health) has extended the deadline for folks to submit feedback on their newest Standards of Care, the document that serves as an international guide for trans healthcare.

The new deadline is

1/16/22, at 11:59pm GMT

The updated Standards of Care, once it is finalized and put into use, will affect and influence transgender healthcare for the next decade. It will impact trans care across the globe, not just in the US and Europe.

This will affect you.

This means we have to do our best to correct WPATH's errors and misinformation while we can. Many changes to the SOC are great and show progress, but other changes are going backwards and will make things more difficult for us and others within our community.

"It is absolutely imperative that the trans community and affirming healthcare providers provide important feedback to WPATH on the mistakes & problems within the new guidelines, as these issues can and will negatively impact trans healthcare for the next decade once the final document is published. Make no mistake, there are many positive changes to the new SOC as well: much more affirming language, lower recommended general minimum age to access gender-affirming healthcare, a new chapter for nonbinary people, etc.

But right now, the immediate & most pressing issue is to fix the problems. So let’s talk about them."

The above quote is taken from this reddit post. Please give it a read, as the author is way better at explaining everything than I am.

They go into detail explaining the issues with the problematic chapters of the new SOC, the biggest of which caters to the fictional idea of "rapid onset gender dysphoria" affecting young kids/teens, which is essentially a bullshit term coined by transphobes and terfs to explain why more young trans men and trans mascs are coming out and seeking transition. This junk science has been completely debunked, but WPATH including it in their guidelines will only give it power again.

There are three other chapters of the SOC with problems that need to be addressed. The topics include social transitioning for trans kids, the use of progesterone in hrt for trans women and girls, and the bodily autonomy of intersex people.

The reddit post (linked again here for convenience) is incredibly helpful for explaining these issues. They also provide links to the surveys for each faulty chapter.

If you scroll through the comments of the reddit post or follow this link to a Google document, a very helpful young ally has taken the time to share the feedback they submitted so that others can copy it and submit it themselves or use it as a guide for their own words. If you do this, please be certain to submit each part of the feedback to the individual chapter it is referring to. For example, copy the text about the Hormone Therapy Chapter and then submit that to the survey about that chapter.

If you want to go directly to the WPATH surveys, you can follow this link. It will take you to the page below (left). If you click the big ol' link on that page, it will open up a 2 page document (right) containing links to all the surveys, which also include the drafts of each chapter in the new Standards of Care, so you can review them yourself if you so desire.

Please, follow the links in this post. Get more info. Submit feedback. Help this post go around.

Once again, we have until 11:59pm GMT on January 16th, 2021 to submit feedback to WPATH.

tl;dr:

WPATH is changing their Standards of Care for trans folks, and their draft has problems that need to be addressed before the document is finalized and used to guide trans healthcare for the next decade.

They have surveys open to the public until 1/16/22. It is vital for us to complete these surveys for WPATH so that enough trans voices can reach them and let them know where they need to improve.

oh no I understand, I got that adhd brain too :P

That's a good question though, thank you for asking! I have that unfortunate American assumption that most folks following me are also Americans, so this is a good reminder that that's not the case.

I admit I am fuzzy on what exactly WPATH stands for 😅, so after some half-assed research (I googled it) it's The World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

In their Standards of Care (the 7th edition is on their website if anyone wants a peek) they say that most of the research comes from a North American/Western European perspective, but it is intended to help people in all cultural settings.

Judge orders Illinois State Prison adhere to WPATH SOC

A federal judge has ordered the Illinois Department of Corrections to immediately adhere to WPATH standards of care for the medical treatment of transgender inmates.

The order in the form of a preliminary injunction was issued as a federal judge presides over a class-action suit filed by the ACLU on behalf of three transgender people housed in Illinois state prisons.

The three prisoners have…

This shit you’re spouting directly contradicts the DSM-5 as well as the Standards of Care published by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and my own personal experience!!! 

Take a moment to get educated and check yourself, anon! Informed consent is real and many people take hormones and have surgery for any number of reasons, many of which have NOTHING to do with dysphoria. Live and let live. 

I’m on hormones because of an “Endocrine Disorder NOS,” not dysphoria... and, TBH, I didn’t need any sort of diagnosis to have a bilateral subcutaneous mastectomy with free nipple grafts because I paid out of pocket for my surgery (due to my insurance company’s “trans-exclusion policy,” at the time).

I also hope you realize that dysphoria is legitimately the basis for trans-exclusion policies across the globe... it’s a label that often leads to the automatic denial of health insurance coverage and in many locations a dysphoria diagnosis can also result in forced sterilization, forced psychiatric hospitalization, incarceration, and even a death sentence.  

Labels don’t help, they hurt. And, for real: 

My advice would be to block and ignore. People that identify as “truscum” are uneducated cis-pandering internet dweebs who get off on being willfully ignorant and circle-jerking with the conservatives.

I’d recommend reading the Standards of Care published by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health as well as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for the most up to date information. 

According to the WPATH SOC, version 7:

“Only some gender-nonconforming people experience gender dysphoria at some point in their lives.” What does this mean? Medical professionals recognize that not all trans of gender nonconforming individuals experience dysphoria.

“Many additional issues need to be considered in the psychosocial and medical care of [trans and gender nonconforming] patients, regardless of the presence of gender dysphoria.” What does this mean? There are many other aspects to trans and gender nonconforming folks that are significantly more important than dysphoria, which may or may NOT be present.

“Treatment is available to assist people with such distress to explore their gender identity and find a gender role that is comfortable for them.”  What does this mean? Treatment is individualized to meet the individual’s needs. There’s no universal way to be trans or gender nonconforming. There’s no universal trans or gender nonconforming identity or presentation. People should explore gender identities and gender roles to find something that works for them. Lastly, and most importantly, gender identities and roles lie along a spectrum- male and female are just two options of many!

“Some cross-dressers, drag queens/kings or female/male impersonators, and gay and lesbian individuals may be experiencing gender dysphoria.” What does this mean? Not everyone who experiences gender dysphoria identifies with being born in the wrong body.

“From place to place, both across and within nations, there are differences in all of the following: social attitudes towards transsexual, transgender, and gender-nonconforming people; constructions of gender roles and identities; language used to describe different gender identities; epidemiology of gender dysphoria; access to and cost of treatment; therapies offered; number and type of professionals who provide care; and legal and policy issues related to this area of health care.”  What does this mean? The WPATH SOC acknowledge that there is nothing universal in this world. Please note that the aforementioned text ALSO includes the words “gender roles;” it doesn’t specify “male” or “female” nor does it say “the two binary gender roles.” The text explicitly states says “gender roles,” plural… multiple, not a couple, not just two binary genders. Also note the key word appearing shortly before “gender roles”: CONSTRUCTION… as in societally constructed!  

“Even if epidemiologic studies established that a similar proportion of transsexual, transgender, or gender-nonconforming people existed all over the world, it is likely that cultural differences from one country to another would alter both the behavioral expressions of different gender identities and the extent to which gender dysphoria—distinct from one’s gender identity—is actually occurring in a population.”  What does this mean? There is no universal way to be trans or gender nonconforming and there is no universal requirement to exhibit dysphoria.

“Formal epidemiologic studies on gender dysphoria—in children, adolescents, and adults—are lacking. Additional research is needed to refine estimates of its prevalence and persistence in different populations worldwide.”  What does this mean?Due to limited research on dysphoria, there is much unknown. How many people actually suffer from dysphoria, how dysphoria presents and how dysphoria grows are ALL concepts that are understudied and misunderstood… don’t let people on the internet try and tell you otherwise!

“Psychotherapy can help an individual to explore gender concerns and find ways to alleviate gender dysphoria, if present.”  What does this mean? The last part of this sentence in this statement is most important:  dysphoria is NOT present in all cases!

“Many individuals who receive treatment will find a gender role and expression that is comfortable for them, even if these differ from those associated with their sex assigned at birth, or from prevailing gender norms and expectations.”  What does this mean? The purpose of treatment, hormones and surgery is about what works for the individual, regardless of social norms, societal expectations, and socially constructed gender roles.

According to the DSM-V:

“Gender dysphoria refers to the distress that may accompany the incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender and one’s assigned gender.” What does this mean? Keyword is MAY. Pretty simple, eh?  Not all people who experience or express their gender differently from their sex assignment at birth experience distress AKA dysphoria.

“Transgender refers to the broad spectrum of individuals who transiently or persistently identify with a gender different from their natal gender.” What does this mean? Medical professionals acknowledge that a broad spectrum of individuals don’t identify with their sex assigned at birth for whatever reason, with or without dysphoria… because somebody doesn’t need to be pathologically distressed and diagnosed to know how they identify!!!!

This is my blog.

Google exists for a reason.

I’m not here to be a teacher for the bigots. 

If you’re too dense to read the WPATH SOC, the DSM, or the latest announcement from the WHO, it’s your issue, not mine!

Not every trans person is dysphoric, simple enough. 

Time is valuable. 

Idiots are everywhere.

Educating the ignoramus is not my responsibility. 

You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.

My content, my choice. 

TBH, I’d rather be a “special snowflake” than an uncouth ignoramus.