How the Next Generation of Doctors Is Learning to Treat Transgender People

A recent study suggests that a transgender person walking into an endocrinologist’s office to begin medical transition has less than a two-thirds chance of receiving that treatment. That study, published in Endocrine Practice, found that only 63% of endocrinology providers at a 2015 conference were willing to provide hormone therapy for transgender patients. Half hadn’t even read the Endocrine Society’s 2009 readily available guidelines for that treatment.
But there was a silver lining: 70% of providers under age 40 had read the guidelines. If that’s indicative a broader trend, the next generation of endocrinologists could change the map for transgender health care. Someday in the not-too-distant future, as pioneering young doctors reshape the medical world, transgender patients may be able to access state-of-the-art hormone therapy as easily as diabetics receive insulin prescriptions.