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Michigan Medicine strives to be a safe, welcoming place for transgender individuals and to provide excellent health care regardless of gender. The goal of this video is to improve the comfort and competency of frontline staff in caring for transgender individuals. We will start by talking about gender identity, challenges the transgender community has faced in the health care system, and Michigan's policies regarding gender non-discrimination. The second half of this training is job specific.
To discuss gender identity, it is important to understand the difference between sex and gender. Sex refers to one's reproductive organs, native hormones, and chromosomes, while gender identity refers to one's internal sense of gender, a person's basic sense of being a man or boy, a woman or girl, or another gender. Gender identity can be expressed by how individuals present themselves socially, including clothing, physical characteristics, speech, and mannerisms. All people, whether they are transgender or cisgender, meaning not transgender, have a gender identity and expression. Transgender is a term for individuals whose gender identity differs from the gender identity typically associated with their sex assigned at birth. There are many identities that fall under the umbrella of transgender.
Transgender men, trans men, or trans masculine refer to people who are assigned female sex at birth but identify as men or masculine. Transgender women, trans women, or trans feminine refer to people who were assigned male sex at birth but identify as women or feminine. Other individuals may identify as genderqueer, agender, genderfluid, two spirited, bigender, or another identity that does not fit neatly into the categories of men or women. All major American medical societies, including the American Medical Association and American Psychological Association, endorse gender affirming care as the standard of care for transgender individuals. This means caring for people in a way that supports their gender transition and gender identity.
Transgender people may undergo any one of a number of gender affirming medical interventions, including hormonal therapies like estrogen, testosterone, or hormone blockers, and surgical treatment to change body contours or genitalia. However, it is important to note that one does not have to undergo any medical or surgical treatment to be transgender. Some people are easily read as the gender they affirm while others are visibly gender non conforming or androgynous appearing.