World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), October 2022
Following five-years of rigorous scientific effort by more than 120 health care clinical and academic professionals across the globe, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) has released the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8 (SOC8).
Building upon the Standards of Care Version 7, which were released in 2012, the SOC8 provides clinical guidance for health care professionals to assist transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people with safe and effective pathways to achieve lasting personal comfort with their gendered selves, and to maximize their overall health, psychological well-being, and self-fulfillment. This assistance may include primary care, hormonal or surgical treatments, gynecologic and urologic care, reproductive options, voice and communication therapy, and mental health services (e.g., counseling, psychotherapy), among others.
The SOC8 guidelines committee consisted of multidisciplinary subject matter experts, health care professionals, researchers and stakeholders with diverse perspectives and global geographic representation. Consensus of final recommendations were based upon extensive reviews of the literature and were attained using an iterative Delphi process, which involved multiple rounds of revisions based upon careful review by the authorship team that included all members of the guidelines committee.
“The Standards of Care 8 is here to help people get the care they need so they can live healthy, happy lives. We are not starting from scratch. We are building upon decades of research and
clinical experience,” said SOC8 Co-Chairs, Eli Coleman, PhD, Jon Arcelus, MD, PhD, and Asa Radix, MD, PhD, MPH.