U.S. Military Doctors Don't Feel Prepared To Care For Transgender Patients

(Reuters Health) - While the majority of U.S. military doctors surveyed at a meeting last year felt they could provide “nonjudgmental” care to people who are transgender, most said they have received little or no training on transgender care.  Nearly 90 percent of the doctors said they had not received enough training to prescribe hormones to help patients prepare for a gender transition. The prevalence of gender dysphoria in the military “seems to come as a surprise to people,” said lead author Dr. Natasha Schvey, of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Gender dysphoria is the stress and anxiety that results when a person’s gender identity and biological sex are not aligned. Individuals who identify as transgender are overrepresented 2 to 1 in the military, compared to the civilian population, Schvey told Reuters Health. She and her colleagues write in JAMA Internal Medicine that the Pentagon lifted its ban on transgender people serving openly in the U.S. military in 2016. That came a few months after the meeting at which the survey was conducted; since then, efforts have been made to educate military healthcare providers about transgender care. Military physicians care not just for active-duty service members but for their family members as well. The researchers write that about 13,000 people who are transgender currently serve in the military and each year, about 200 will seek treatment, such as ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news