The University Hospital of La Ribera has incorporated a multidisciplinary committee for the care of transgender people, which includes professionals from Psychology, Sexology, Endocrinology, Gynaecology, Plastic Surgery and Speech Therapy, as reported yesterday by the Department of Health.
The objective of this committee is to address the cases of people in whom there is a discrepancy between the felt gender and the gender that was assigned to them at birth, offering them comprehensive care structured in three care levels: psychological and sexological, endocrinological and surgical. .
“In this way, we incorporate transgender medicine into our Health Department, comprehensively addressing the needs presented by these people from a multidisciplinary and depathologizing perspective, and through highly qualified professionals for it,” highlights Dr. Pablo Sanz, a specialist in Endocrinology and Nutrition and member of the multidisciplinary committee.
It is the first regional public hospital that incorporates transgender medicine in the Valencian Community, in which there are only three reference units, one per province, in the Dr. Peset de València, General de Alicante and General de Castellón hospitals.
transition process
The sexologists of the Department of Health of the Ribera are the first to deal with these cases, generally referred from Primary Care consultations in order to advise users and accompany them throughout the transition process towards the gender with which they feel identified. .
According to sexologists Pepa González and Yinette Martínez, “it is essential to establish a space for accompaniment and sexological advice for people who are considering starting a transition process and for their families, especially when we are talking regarding minors. This will allow us to realistically situate the expectations of these people in relation to the treatments, their duration and the results».
“Issues regarding gender stereotypes, gender discourses and the relationship with the body are issues that take on special importance in adolescence, in the vindication of their sexual and gender identity,” the sexologists point out.
After this first level of care, it is the endocrinologists who offer the possibility of hormonal treatment that allows the development of physical characteristics according to the stated gender.
At the next level, the individualized surgical approach is proposed to those people who want to carry it out and which is usually done from 18 years of age.
In this way, the Alzira Hospital also performs some of the gender confirmation surgeries (GCC), such as mastectomies (removal of the breasts) and augmentation mammoplasties, hysterectomies and offerectomies (removal of the uterus and ovaries, respectively).
This multidisciplinary committee has already addressed a total of 58 cases of people with incongruous gender and sexual identity, some of whom are minors. Once the transition to the felt gender is completed, these people are also monitored throughout their lives.