Trans People's Experiences of Mental Health and Gender Identity Services: A UK Study

Abstract

Drawing on survey data from a UK study of trans people and mental health, the study presented here reports on the experiences of trans people in two health care settings: mental health services and gender identity clinics. An analysis of the primarily qualitative data indicates that in these settings practitioners tend to be poorly informed about trans issues and the realities of trans people's lives. The key observations of this study are that untreated gender dysphoria (due to delays or refusals of treatment), unnecessary and intrusive questioning/tests, prejudicial attitudes by service providers, and restrictive treatment pathways, all contribute to minority stress which is detrimental to the mental health and well-being of trans people.

KEYWORDS:

• transgender
• mental health
• gender identity
• health care

Notes

¹People who are not trans and do not have any trans history. That is, people whose gender identity and expression has always been typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.

²In the United Kingdom, a GP is a professional who deals with everyday medical issues; commonly referred to as a doctor outside the United Kingdom.

³The NHS is the state-funded health service which encompasses a wide range of medical services from health clinics through to hospitals. Private health care is relatively rare in the United Kingdom.

⁴We have used the term sex reassignment surgery here as this is the terminology used by our participants; however, our preferred term is gender confirmation surgery.