Health Care for Every Body
Dartmouth Health's Commitment to Affirming All Patients

What is essential care for transgender people/gender-affirming care?

As defined by the World Health Organization, gender-affirming care encompasses a range of social, psychological, behavioral, and medical interventions designed to support and affirm an individual’s gender identity when it conflicts with the gender they were assigned at birth.

What is the purpose of gender-affirming intervention? 

Through age-appropriate and evidenced-based treatment protocols, the goal of gender-affirming intervention is to assist transgender people with the alignment of various aspects of their lives — emotional, interpersonal, and biological—with their gender identity. These interventions fall along a continuum from counseling services to dermatology, endocrinology, urology, plastic surgery, gynecology, and speech/language needs.

What types of gender-affirming intervention does Dartmouth Health Children's provide to minors under the age of 18?

In New Hampshire, Dartmouth Health Children's does not perform gender-affirming genital surgery on minors. Our multidisciplinary medical teams work in concert with patients who are minors and their parents and/or legal guardians to determine which, if any, gender-affirming care may be appropriate. Our pediatric gender-affirming care is designed to take a conservative approach. When young children experience feelings that their gender identity does not match their sex recorded at birth, the first course of action is to provide mental health support as needed. For older adolescents, treatment plans are tailored to the individual and designed to maximize the time teenagers and their families have before making any decisions about their potential transition.

Why is gender-affirming care essential for some adults or minors?

Every major U.S. medical and mental health organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association, recognizes that affirming and supporting gender identify is essential medical care for transgender and gender diverse youth. A study entitled, “Association Between Gender-Affirming Surgeries and Mental Health Outcomes” published in JAMA Surgery, April 2021, examines the link between a lack of gender-affirming care and mental health risks. The findings indicate that transgender and gender-diverse (TDG) people had significantly lower odds of past-month psychological distress, past-year tobacco smoking, and past-year suicidal ideation compared with TGD people who had no history of gender-affirming surgery. For more than 200 years, Dartmouth Health has been determined to apply this kind of evidence-based research to deliver the most advanced medical care to our patients and families. We believe in compassionate, inclusive care for all patients—regardless of gender. By relying on science to guide all modalities of medical intervention, we can ensure better public health outcomes.