World Professional Association for Transgender Health

Last updated
World Professional Association for Transgender Health
AbbreviationWPATH
FormationSeptember 1979;44 years ago (1979-09)
Type NGO
94-2675140 [1]
Legal status 501(c)(3) [1]
PurposeTo promote evidence-based care, education, research, advocacy, public policy, and respect in transgender health. [2]
Headquarters East Dundee, Illinois, U.S.
Products Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People
Membership (2021)
2,700 [3]
Walter Pierre Bouman [4]
Marci Bowers [4]
Asa Radix [4]
Loren Schechter [4]
Board Members-at-Large - (2018 - 2022); Tamara Adrian; Jaimie Veale; (2020 – 2022); Javier Belinky; Michael Marshall; (2020 – 2024); Christina Richards; Stephen Rosenthal; Sanjay Sharma;

Christina Richards (EPATH REPRESENTATIVE); Erica Anderson (USPATH REPRESENTATIVE); Greg Mak (ASIAPATH REPRESENTATIVE); Jared Boot (EX-OFFICIO MEMBER - WPATH STUDENT INITIATIVE REPRESENTATIVE)

Contents

[4]
Revenue (2016)
$1,245,915 [2]
Expenses (2016)$1,144,284 [2]
Employees (2016)
0 [2]
Website www.wpath.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Formerly called
Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity and gender dysphoria, and creating standardized treatment for transgender and gender variant people. WPATH was founded in September 1979 by endocrinologist and sexologist Harry Benjamin, with the goal of creating an international community of professionals specializing in treating gender variance. [5] [6]

Organization

Membership

Professionals include anyone working in disciplines such as medicine, psychology, law, social work, counseling, psychotherapy, family studies, sociology, anthropology, speech and voice therapy and sexology. Non-professionals may also join, paying the same membership fee, but without voting privileges. [7] The organization is funded by its membership and by donations and grants from non-commercial sources. [8]

Regional organizations

WPATH is affiliated with several regional organizations, including the European Professional Association for Transgender Health, the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health and ASIAPATH. [9]

Standards of Care

WPATH publishes the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, educates professionals and consumers, sponsors scientific conferences, and provides ethical guidelines for professionals. [10] The first version of the Standards of Care were published in 1979. [11] WPATH released Version 8, the latest edition, in 2022. [12] Previous versions were released in 1979 (1st), [13] 1980 (2nd), [14] 1981 (3rd), [15] [16] 1990 (4th), [17] 1998 (5th), [18] 2001 (6th), [19] [20] and 2012 (7th). [21]

History

Background

Medical treatment for gender dysphoria was publicized in the early 1950s by accounts such as those of Christine Jorgensen. [22]

In 1966, Harry Benjamin published The Transsexual Phenomenon, arguing that since there was no cure for transsexualism, it was in the best interests of transsexuals and society to aid in sex reassignment and in the same year the John Hopkins Gender Clinic was opened by John Money. [22] In 1969, Richard Greene and Money published Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment, a multidisciplinary volume exploring instructions on medical care as well as social and clinical aspects, dedicating it to Benjamin. [22] The same year, the 1st International Symposium on Gender Identity was held in London; Reed Erickson, a wealthy transgender man, funded interdisciplinary professionals via the Erickson Educational Foundation. The 4th conference, taking place in 1975, was the first to use Benjamin's name in the title. [22]

During this period, the majority of literature on gender diversity was pathologizing, positing dysfunctional families as the causes of dysphoria and recommending reparative therapy and psychoanalysis, such as Robert Stoller' work. Others such as George Rekers and Ole Ivar Lovaas recommended behavioral treatments to extinguish cross-sex identification and reinforce gender-normative behaviors. [22]

1979-2000

The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association and Standards of Care (SOC) were conceived during the 5th International Gender Dysphoria Symposium (IGDS) in 1977. [23] The organization was named after Harry Benjamin, one of the earliest physicians to work with transgender people, [24] and supported a mixture of psychological and medical treatment. [25] [26]

The founding committee was entirely American and consisted of Jack Berger, Richard Green, Don Laub, Charles Reynolds Jr., Paul A. Walker, Leo Wollman, and transgender activist Jude Patton with Walker serving as president; The first SOC committee included all founding committee members with the exception of Patton. [23] The initial Standards of Care, The hormonal and surgical sex reassignment of gender dysphoric persons, were published in 1979 and served both as clinical guidelines for treating patients and to protect those who provided the treatments. [25] The Articles of Incorporation were approved in 1979 at the 6th IGDS and HBIGDA was legally incorporated 7 months later. [23] HBIGDA played a large role in the addition of Gender Identity Disorder to the DSM-III in 1980. [23]

Versions 2, 3, and 4 of the SOC were published in 1980, 1981 and 1990 respectively, continuing to use the same name. [23] [22] The first 4 versions of the SOC set strict eligibility requirements, requiring evaluations from separate mental health professionals and compulsory psychotherapy, and relied on professional consensus. [22] [26]

The 5th version, published in 1998, was titled the "Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders" to be consistent with the DSM-III. It recommended but did not require psychotherapy and stated that while GID was a mental disorder, that was not a license for stigma. [22]

Presidents

Public Statements

The organisation has issued a variety of public statements over the years, since its first in 2009 titled: "WPATH response to Alberta, Canada's Decision to Delist Sexual Reassignment Surgery as a Covered Medical Benefit", [28] and its most recent on 11 April 2024 titled: "PATH letter to Elected Officials in Japan to amend the “Gender Identity Disorder Special Cases Act” following the Supreme Court judgment in 2023"; [29] and in the intervening years a number of letters to USA organisations and medical bodies, as well as international ones including Republic of Kazakhstan and Russia (2020), Australia and UK (2021).

Related Research Articles

Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identity—their personal sense of their own gender—and their sex assigned at birth. The term replaced the previous diagnostic label of gender identity disorder (GID) in 2013 with the release of the diagnostic manual DSM-5. The condition was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.

Gender-affirming surgery is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender. The phrase is most often associated with transgender health care and intersex medical interventions, although many such treatments are also pursued by cisgender and non-intersex individuals. It is also known as sex reassignment surgery, gender confirmation surgery, and several other names.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Benjamin</span> German/American endocrinologist and sexologist

Harry Benjamin was a German-American endocrinologist and sexologist, widely known for his clinical work with transgender people.

The Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People (SOC) is an international clinical protocol by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) outlining the recommended assessment and treatment for transgender and gender-diverse individuals across the lifespan including social, hormonal, or surgical transition. It often influences clinicians' decisions regarding patients' treatment. While other standards, protocols, and guidelines exist – especially outside the United States – the WPATH SOC is the most widespread protocol used by professionals working with transgender or gender-variant people.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to transgender topics.

Russell Reid is a retired consultant psychiatrist who specialized in sexual and gender-related conditions. He is particularly known for his work with gender identity disorder patients. Richard Curtis took over his practice after his retirement. Reid grew up in New Zealand and worked privately in the United Kingdom. Britain's best-known expert on gender reassignment, he was a member of the parliamentary forum on transsexualism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray Blanchard</span> American-Canadian sexologist (born 1945)

Ray Milton Blanchard is an American-Canadian sexologist who researches pedophilia, sexual orientation and gender identity. He has found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay than men with fewer older brothers, a phenomenon he attributes to the reaction of the mother's immune system to male fetuses. Blanchard has also published research studies on phallometry and several paraphilias, including autoerotic asphyxia. Blanchard also proposed a typology of transsexualism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Laub</span> American plastic surgeon (1935–2024)

Donald Rudolf Laub Sr. was an American plastic surgeon and founder of Interplast, which led multidisciplinary teams on reconstructive surgery missions to developing countries.

Gender dysphoria in children (GD), also known as gender incongruence of childhood, is a formal diagnosis for children who experience significant discontent due to a mismatch between their assigned sex and gender identity. The diagnostic label gender identity disorder in children (GIDC) was used by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until it was renamed gender dysphoria in children in 2013 with the release of the DSM-5. The diagnosis was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.

The American-Canadian sexologist Ray Blanchard proposed a psychological typology of gender dysphoria, transsexualism, and fetishistic transvestism in a series of academic papers through the 1980s and 1990s. Building on the work of earlier researchers, including his colleague Kurt Freund, Blanchard categorized trans women into two groups: homosexual transsexuals who are attracted exclusively to men and are feminine in both behavior and appearance; and autogynephilic transsexuals who experience sexual arousal at the idea of having a female body. Blanchard and his supporters argue that the typology explains differences between the two groups in childhood gender nonconformity, sexual orientation, history of sexual fetishism, and age of transition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transgender sexuality</span> Sexuality of transgender people

Sexuality in transgender individuals encompasses all the issues of sexuality of other groups, including establishing a sexual identity, learning to deal with one's sexual needs, and finding a partner, but may be complicated by issues of gender dysphoria, side effects of surgery, physiological and emotional effects of hormone replacement therapy, psychological aspects of expressing sexuality after medical transition, or social aspects of expressing their gender.

Ira Basil Pauly is an American psychiatrist who was an All American college football player at UCLA, and is known for his influential work on transsexualism.

Stephen Barrett Levine is an American psychiatrist known for his work in human sexuality, particularly sexual dysfunction and transsexualism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transsexual</span> People experiencing a gender identity inconsistent with their assigned sex

A transsexual person is someone who experiences a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desires to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance to help them align their body with their identified sex or gender.

Paul Allen Walker was an American social psychologist and founding president of HBIGDA, the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association now known as WPATH, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health in 1979. He also served as director of the Janus Information Facility.

Puberty blockers are medicines used to postpone puberty in children. The most commonly used puberty blockers are gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, which suppress the natural production of sex hormones, such as androgens and estrogens. Puberty blockers are used to delay the development of unwanted secondary sex characteristics in transgender children, so as to allow transgender youth more time to explore their gender identity. The same drugs are also used to treat other conditions, such as precocious puberty in young children and some hormone-sensitive cancers in adults.

Transgender hormone therapy, also called hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), is a form of hormone therapy in which sex hormones and other hormonal medications are administered to transgender or gender nonconforming individuals for the purpose of more closely aligning their secondary sexual characteristics with their gender identity. This form of hormone therapy is given as one of two types, based on whether the goal of treatment is masculinization or feminization:

The real-life experience (RLE), sometimes called the real-life test (RLT), is a period of time or process in which transgender individuals live full-time in their identified gender role in order to be eligible to receive gender-affirming treatment. The purpose of the RLE has been to confirm that a given transgender person could function successfully as a member of said gender in society, as well as to confirm that they are sure they want to live as said gender for the rest of their life. A documented RLE was previously a requirement of many physicians before prescribing gender-affirming hormone therapy, and a requirement of most surgeons before performing gender-affirming surgery.

Anne Alexandra Lawrence is an American psychologist, sexologist, and physician who has published extensively on gender dysphoria, transgender people, and paraphilias. Lawrence is a transgender woman and self-identifies as autogynephilic. She is best known for her 2013 book on autogynephilia, Men Trapped in Men's Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism, which has been regarded by Ray Blanchard as the definitive text on the subject. Lawrence is one of the major researchers in the area of Blanchard's etiological typology of transgender women and has been one of the most major proponents of the theory. While Blanchard's typology and autogynephilia are highly controversial subjects and are not accepted by many transgender women and academics, some, such as Lawrence, identify with autogynephilia. Lawrence's work also extends beyond Blanchard's typology, to transgender women and to transition more generally.

Transgender health care includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental health conditions, as well as gender-affirming care, for transgender individuals. A major component of transgender health care is gender-affirming care, the medical aspect of gender transition. Questions implicated in transgender health care include gender variance, sex reassignment therapy, health risks, and access to healthcare for trans people in different countries around the world.

References

  1. 1 2 "World Professional Association For Transgender Health Archived 2018-10-04 at the Wayback Machine ". Tax Exempt Organization Search. Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax Archived 2022-06-18 at the Wayback Machine ". World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Guidestar. December 31, 2016.
  3. ↑ Bowers, Marci (January 11, 2021). Dear WPATH Membership (PDF). WPATH. WPATH has seen significant growth in its membership and programming over the past year, now with more than 2700 members and 49 countries represented.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 ["https://www.wpath.org/about/EC-BOD Archived 2018-10-04 at the Wayback Machine ]". World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  5. ↑ "World Professional Association for Transgender Health". Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  6. ↑ "International Symposia". WPATH. Archived from the original on 2022-04-21. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  7. ↑ "Membership Information". WPATH. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  8. ↑ "WPATH". Archived from the original on 2020-11-03. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  9. ↑ "Regional Organizations". World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Archived from the original on 2022-09-04. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  10. ↑ Wong, Gillian (June 17, 2009). China preps 1st guidelines for sex change surgery. Archived 2022-06-18 at the Wayback Machine The Guardian
  11. ↑ Figures, K. (2007). Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association Is Founded. In Faderman, Lillian & Retter, Yolanda (Eds.). Great Events from History: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Events, 1848-2006 Salem Press, ISBN   978-1-58765-263-9
  12. ↑ Coleman, E.; Radix, A. E.; Bouman, W. P.; Brown, G. R.; de Vries, A. L. C.; Deutsch, M. B.; Ettner, R.; Fraser, L.; Goodman, M.; Green, J.; Hancock, A. B.; Johnson, T. W.; Karasic, D. H.; Knudson, G. A.; Leibowitz, S. F. (2022-08-19). "Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8". International Journal of Transgender Health. 23 (sup1): S1–S259. doi:10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644. ISSN   2689-5269. PMC   9553112 . PMID   36238954. S2CID   252127302.
  13. ↑ Walker, P. A.; Berger, J. C.; Green, R.; Laub, D. R.; Reynolds, C. L.; Wollman, L. (13 February 1979), Standards of Care: The Hormonal and Surgical Sex Reassignment of Gender Dysphoric Persons (1 ed.), Palo Alto, California: The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc.
  14. ↑ Walker, P. A.; Berger, J. C.; Green, R.; Laub, D. R.; Reynolds, C. L.; Wollman, L. (20 January 1980), Standards of Care: The Hormonal and Surgical Sex Reassignment of Gender Dysphoric Persons (2 ed.), Stanford, California: The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc.
  15. ↑ Walker, P. A.; Berger, J. C.; Green, R.; Laub, D. R.; Reynolds, C. L.; Wollman, L. (9 March 1981), Standards of Care: The Hormonal and Surgical Sex Reassignment of Gender Dysphoric Persons (3 ed.), San Francisco, California: The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association
  16. ↑ Walker, P. A.; Berger, J. C.; Green, R.; Laub, D. R.; Reynolds, C. L.; Wollman, L. (February 1985). "Standards of Care: The Hormonal and Surgical Sex Reassignment of Gender Dysphoric Persons [3rd Edition]". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 14 (1): 79–90. doi:10.1007/BF01541354. ISSN   0004-0002.
  17. ↑ Walker, P. A.; Berger, J. C.; Green, R.; Laub, D. R.; Reynolds, C. L.; Wollman, L. (25 January 1990), Standards of Care: The Hormonal and Surgical Sex Reassignment of Gender Dysphoric Persons (4 ed.), San Francisco, California: The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association
  18. ↑ Levine, S. B.; Brown, G.; Coleman, E.; Cohen-Kettenis, P.; Joris Hage, J.; Van Maasdam, J.; Petersen, M.; Pfaefflin, F.; Schaefer, L. C. (June 1998). "The Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders [5th Edition]". International Journal of Transgenderism. 2 (2). Consultants: Dallas Denny MA, Domineco DiCeglie MD, Wolf Eicher MD, Jamison Green, Richard Green MD, Louis Gooren MD, Donald Laub MD, Anne Lawrence MD, Walter Meyer III MD, C. Christine Wheeler Ph.D
  19. ↑ Meyer, W.; Bockting, W. O.; Cohen-Kettenis, P.; Coleman, E.; DiCeglie, D.; Devor, H.; Gooren, L.; Joris Hage, J.; Kirk, S.; Kuiper, B.; Laub, D.; Lawrence, A.; Menard, Y.; Patton, J.; Schaefer, L.; Webb, A.; Wheeler, C. C. (February 2001). "The Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders – Sixth Version". International Journal of Transgenderism. 5 (1).
  20. ↑ Meyer, W.; Bockting, W. O.; Cohen-Kettenis, P.; Coleman, E.; DiCeglie, D.; Devor, H.; Gooren, L.; Joris Hage, J.; Kirk, S.; Kuiper, B.; Laub, D.; Lawrence, A.; Menard, Y.; Patton, J.; Schaefer, L.; Webb, A.; Wheeler, C. C. (2001). "The Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders, Sixth Version" (PDF). Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality. 13 (1): 1–30. doi:10.1300/J056v13n01_01.
  21. ↑ Coleman, Eli; et al. (2012). "Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender-Nonconforming People, Version 7" (PDF). International Journal of Transgenderism. 13 (4). World Professional Association for Transgender Health: 165–232. doi:10.1080/15532739.2011.700873. ISSN   1553-2739. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-03-27. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Fraser, Lin (2015). "Gender Dysphoria: Definition and Evolution Through the Years". In Trombetta, Carlo; Liguori, Giovanni; Bertolotto, Michele (eds.). Management of Gender Dysphoria: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Milano: Springer Milan. pp. 19–31. doi:10.1007/978-88-470-5696-1_3. ISBN   978-88-470-5696-1.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 Matte, Nicholas; Devor, Aaron H.; Vladicka, Theresa (2009-05-12). "Nomenclature in the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care : Background and Recommendations". International Journal of Transgenderism. 11 (1): 42–52. doi:10.1080/15532730902799979. ISSN   1553-2739.
  24. ↑ Allee, Kegan M. "Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association". In Encyclopedia of gender and society, Volume 1, p. 402. SAGE, ISBN   978-1-4129-0916-7
  25. 1 2 Dewey, Jodie M. (2015). "Challenges of implementing collaborative models of decision making with trans-identified patients". Health Expectations. 18 (5): 1508–1518. doi:10.1111/hex.12133. ISSN   1369-6513. PMC   5060816 . PMID   24102959.
  26. 1 2 Fraser, Lin; Knudson, Gail (2017-03-01). "Past and Future Challenges Associated with Standards of Care for Gender Transitioning Clients". Psychiatric Clinics of North America. Clinical Issues and Affirmative Treatment with Transgender Clients. 40 (1): 15–27. doi:10.1016/j.psc.2016.10.012. ISSN   0193-953X. PMID   28159141.
  27. ↑ "Alice Webb Obituary (2008) - Houston, TX - Houston Chronicle". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2024-03-25.
  28. ↑ WPATH, Board of Directors (2009-04-21). "WPATH Responds to Alberta, Canada's Decision to Delist Sexual Reassignment Surgery as a Covered Medical Benefit" (PDF). World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
  29. ↑ Bowers, Marci (2024-04-11). "WPATH Letter to Elected Officials in Japan to amend the "Gender Identity Disorder Special Cases Act," following the Supreme Court judgment in 2023" (PDF). World Professional Association for Transgender Health. Retrieved 2024-05-07.
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