#trans-healthcare

#trans-healthcare

"What is it like when you get erections?" is a question you do not want to hear in a 9am meeting. You would expect at least a little weekend catch-up before getting into all that. This piece of small talk comes from a consultant psychiatrist of the National Gender Service (NGS). Activist group Transgress the NGS released a video featuring this question last week taken during a regular assessment at the NGS.

US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, , who once likened gender-affirming care to 'mutilation,' is currently undergoing... gender-affirming care. The 71-year-old Republican is reportedly taking hormone replacement therapy medication despite his repeated criticism of the medical treatment, which is an often life-saving way to affirm trans people's gender identity. Since becoming US health secretary in February, Kennedy has falsely framed gender-affirming care as a form of "chemical and surgical mutilation" while enacting policies pressuring major healthcare providers to cease trans healthcare services.

So if you may remember, years ago now, I started talking about building my own not-for-profit healthcare service for trans adults and trans youth,

A Freedom of Information request from QueerAF, What the Trans? and Claire's Trans Talks has shown that, as of March 2025, 48,000 people were waiting for their first appointment at one of the UK's 15 gender clinics, and for every person seen in 2024, four more people joined the list. In addition, demand for services such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prescriptions increased by 12.5 per cent from the previous year.

Stanford Medicine has paused gender-related surgical procedures for patients under 19, citing evolving federal guidance. This decision comes amid heightened scrutiny of trans health care for youth.