Briefly describe the medical treatments included in gender-confirming therapy.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

There are various medical treatments included in gender-confirming therapy. These include (1) hormone therapy to accomplish pubertal suppression in early adolescents with strong gender dysphoria. This treatment is helpful in buying some time for the adolescent to mature and make a well-informed decision about whether to go through additional medical interventions; (2) hormone therapy to feminize or masculinize the body. This type of therapy is only partially reversible and is typically applied only with older adolescents and adults who are capable of making a definite decision about wanting to transition; (3) genital surgery for FTM (female-to-male) transsexuals can include removal of the uterus (hysterectomy), fallopian tubes, and ovaries; metoidioplasty or phalloplasty (to create a penis); and insertion of artificial testes; (4) chest surgery can include removal of breasts for FTMs and breast augmentation for MTF (male-to-female) transsexuals; (5) genital surgery for MTF transsexuals can include penectomy (removal of the penis), orchiectomy (removal of the testes), vaginoplasty (creation of a vagina from the skin of the penis), clitoroplasty (creation of a clitoris), and vulvoplasty (other surgery to create a female-appearing vulva).