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The Transgender Health Program oversees the development of guidelines for care, with program staff and contracted specialists assisting with review of best practice research and standards developed by other transgender health programs.
As part of the Trans Care Project, a joint initiative of the Transgender Health Program and Transcend Transgender Support & Education Society (with funding by the Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition), local and international clinicians expert in transgender care worked with transgender community members to co-create seven sets of detailed practice protocols for clinicians in BC.
Note: The consumer information PDFs below are set up for viewing on-screen. They can be printed, but as they are in booklet size they will need to be trimmed. To access copies that can be printed as booklets, see vch.eduhealth.ca.
The Trans Care Project guidelines are consistent with (but more detailed than) the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)'s Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly known as the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc. (HBIGDA) is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity disorders.
WPATH has approximately 350 members from around the world, in the fields of psychiatry, endocrinology, surgery, law, psychology, sociology, and counseling. Its Standards of Care represent an evolving interdisciplinary consensus on best practice in the provision of gender transition and crossdressing services.