WPATH and The Standards of Care
Since 1979 the primary professional organization for professionals working with transgendered and transsexual people has published guidelines for the hormonal and surgical treatment of people seeking sex reassignment.
In the 1960s professionals from around the world began to meet to share their research and clinical experience with transsexuals and to develop best practices for hormonal and surgical treatment. The first meetings were called International Symposia on Gender Identity, but in the 1970s they became known as the Harry Benjamin International Conferences. They were named after Dr. Harry Benjamin, a pioneer in the treatment of transsexuals and by all accounts and all around good guy. By the late 1970s this group of scientists had formed a professional organization: The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association.
A committee headed by the late Dr. Paul Walker was formed and given the task of developing guidelines for the medical and pyschological treatment of transsexuals. Other members included Jack C. Berger, M.D.; Richard Green, M.D.; Donald R. Laub, M.D.; Charles L. Reynolds, Jr., M.D.; and Leo Wollman, M.D.
The committee completed its work and in 1979 HBIGDA released its Standards of Care for the Hormonal and Surgical Sex Reassignment of Gender Dysphoric Persons. The Standards were revised in 1980, 1981, 1990, 1998, and 2001. They are now known as the Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders. Not surprisingly yet another revision is in the works.
I was asked to be a consultant for the fifth (2001 revision), and happily gave my input.
As the last century grew HBIGDA developed new sensibilities. There was increased awareness among members that being transsexual did not necessarily lead to sex reassignment, and that nontranssexual transgendered people might choose some treatments (like hormonal therapy or electrolysis) that had until then been considered exclusively for transsexuals. Transsexual and transgendered professionals, who had played a minimal role in the scientific study of transsexuals, began to play important roles in HBIGDA and many members began to look at transsexualism not as a disorder or defect, but as a healthy way of manifesting personal identity.
Around 2007 HBIGDA signified this change in beliefs and interests by changing its name to The World Professional Association for Transgender Health. This had been reflected a decade earlier in the name of its professional periodical, The International Journal of Transgenderism. The election of transman Dr. Stephen Whittle to WPATH’s Presidency several years ago confirmed the profound changes that had occurred within the organization.
Next month I’ll look back on what I had to say about the Standards of Care in the 1990s and take a fresh look at them.
Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender History
About the Author (Author Profile)
Dallas Denny’s contributions to transgender activism, knowledge, and history are legendary and span four decades. She was the first voice thousands of desperate transpeople heard when they reached out for help, and she provided the information and referrals they so desperately needed. She is a prolific writer. Her books, booklets, magazines she has edited, and articles fill an entire bookcase and are in danger of spilling over into a second bookcase. She has created and led several national nonprofit organizations, been present at the creation of at least five transgender conferences, and led two long-lived support groups, She created the first trans-exclusive archive of printed and recorded literature, which today is available to the public at Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan. She has been a fierce advocate for transgender autonomy and access to medical care. Through it all, she has stayed on task, and made it all about the task at hand rather than about herself. Now, in her mid-seventies, she maintains the same frenetic pace she has kept up since the 1980s. Dallas’ work is viewable in its entirety on her website.Subscribe
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