Hormone replacement therapy (transgender)

Hormone replacement therapy for transgender or gender variant individuals, also sometimes called cross-sex hormone therapy, is a form of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in which sex hormones and other hormonal medications are administered to transgender or gender variant individuals for the purpose of synchronizing their secondary sexual characteristics with their gender identity. This form of HRT is given as one of two types, based on whether the goal of treatment is feminization or masculinization:

Some intersex people may also undergo HRT, either starting in childhood to confirm the sex they were assigned at birth, or later in order to align their sex with their gender identity.

The formal requirements for hormone replacement therapy vary widely.

The Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People (SOC) require psychological counseling and for the patient to live a period of a time in the desired gender role, in order to assure that they can psychologically function in that gender role. This period is sometimes called the real-life experience (RLE). While this standard was widely followed in the 20th century, a growing number of physicians refuse to follow the Standards of Care, insisting that they are too restrictive and that inhibiting patient access to hormone therapy does more harm than good.

Some LGBT health organizations (notably Chicago's Howard Brown Health Center) advocate for an informed consent model where the patient must only prove that they understand the risk and consent to the procedure in order to access hormone therapy.

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