The gatekeepers are relaxing their standards and have opened the door for exceptions, in an 8 year old guideline:
The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association’s Standards Of Care For Gender Identity Disorders, Sixth Version
February, 2001
of section VII:
VII. Requirements for Hormone Therapy for Adults
Reasons for Hormone Therapy. Cross-sex hormonal treatments play an important role in the anatomical and psychological gender transition process for properly selected adults with gender dentity disorders. Hormones are often medically necessary for successful living in the new gender. They improve the quality of life and limit psychiatric co-morbidity, which often accompanies lack of treatment. When physicians administer androgens to biologic females and estrogens, progesterone, and testosterone-blocking agents to biologic males, patients feel and appear more like members of their preferred gender.
Eligibility Criteria. The administration of hormones is not to be lightly undertaken because of their medical and social risks. Three criteria exist.
1. Age 18 years;
2. Demonstrable knowledge of what hormones medically can and cannot do and their social benefits and risks;
3. Either:
a. A documented real-life experience of at least three months prior to the administration
of hormones; or
b. A period of psychotherapy of a duration specified by the mental health professional after the initial evaluation (usually a minimum of three months)….
At the conclusion is this paragraph:
“……In selected circumstances, it can be acceptable to provide hormones to patients who have not fulfilled criterion 3 – for example, to facilitate the provision of monitored therapy using hormones of known quality, as an alternative to black-market or unsupervised hormone use.”
It shows admittance that the rigid standards imposed can cause harm, and that exceptions can be made in circumstances that not doing so may cause more harm than what the guidelines are purportedly meant to prevent.
Can the disposition of this particular argument be used to break down age, and other barriers?
Might it even pull the pins out from underneath what is a barrier to many transgenders, and their custodians who do not have the financial, professional, or legal resources to navigate ?
I’m not a professional but this looks like an exploitable weakness for some resourceful knowledgeable person, or persons barred by a directive that dose not trust their judgment.
If you have any questions or comments about HBS or WPATH contact:
Dr. Bean Robinson, PhD (USA)
Executive Director
Or:
Jeffrey Whitman (USA)
Executive Administrator
Email: wpath@wpath.org
1300 South Second Street, Suite 180
Minneapolis, MN 55454
found at their page:
I do need to read the whole thing in earnest, and study it more carefully, but my current feelings of frustration have me fixated on this specific portion.
I do not believe anyone would approach the subject of transgenderism for them selves, or a loved one with such disregard that a set of guidelines, be set in place of an informed individual’s judgment.
“Strength and Happiness”
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