SOC (Standards of Care) Version 7

[Ativan Prescribed]

www.wpath.org/site_page.cfm?pk_association_webpage_menu=1351

This document is available in several languages, listed at this link.

[Deleted]

Good info, thanks for posting Ativan! Perhaps a page dedicated to helpful links is in order for this website?

[Ativan Prescribed]

I think this is an important enough document to have pinned to the top of this section.

If you notice the people listed at the beginning and at the end, which refers to the group who works with the revisions and also at the very end, the listing of contributors, you'll see the various publications they authored or coauthored.

I read at times the various opinions of people who would like to see revisions made for various reasons.
In relationship to the SOC, these people have freely given their time to this.
You have to understand that revisions are ongoing and have to go through the revisions group before they can become a part of it.
It is my understanding that while there is considerable information that they have to consider, they make those considerations with care.
Professionals who have questions that pertain to ongoing revisions and additional information is given freely by this group.
They realize that new information is vital and ongoing, along with far more studies being done every year.
The SOC is not the last word, it is the first. Professionals should know and understand this, and adhering strictly to the SOC isn't necessary.

[Ativan Prescribed]

Apr 2, 2015 22:14:05 GMT 8 Shan said:

Good info, thanks for posting Ativan! Perhaps a page dedicated to helpful links is in order for this website?

That is the main link, although I'm sure there are many other links that could also be put up.

[EchelonHunt]

Pinned/Stickied.

[Deleted]

Thats a really interesting logo on it.

So, real time experience in your true gender role, as opposed to in the target sex as I recall the old one had?

How has this evolved for the nonbinaries?

I wonder, since i present full time as something clearly different from both male and female genders, with elements of both.  Does this revision help the nonbinaries who desire surgery to be themselves?  As they wish to experience their genders?

Have gains been made here?

[EchelonHunt]

Yes, I'm curious too.

When I came out to my psychiatrist as non-binary, my psychiatrist made it sound like if I experimented with changing my gender expression, like my hair or clothes, etc... that I would be able to be comfortable and not require any surgeries (for example, bottom surgery) If I didn't explicitly identify as male or masculine, why would I need bottom surgery to make my body more masculine?

His idea of a gender neutral body is getting top surgery and leaving the bottom alone. No, that is NOT gender neutral, it isn't for me at least. Being gender neutral would be sexless in my circumstances would be removing my genitalia down there entirely but that surgery is illegal as it is considered female genitalia mutilation. Even he was surprised at how much research I had put into it, yes, because I really wanted that surgery but it is impossible to get.

I love my psychiatrist but it is frustrating as hell that doctors have their own pre-conceived notions about what it means to be male, female or gender neutral - for example, if you identify near the male spectrum, your body and gender expression must be masculine, vice-versa for everything else. It is such a binary-view of gender and it reinforces that gender identity = sex - IT SHITS ME! It is even more frustrating when such pre-conceived notions are based on what other people have done. FUCK other people, I am different and my needs won't necessarily coincide with theirs! Just because a majority of non-binary folks are okay with their bodies without needing further surgeries or any at all, doesn't mean that I will or should be!

Yes, I have a distinct part of me who would like to remove my uterus rather than everything, have a breast reduction to AA/A cup (again, not possible because I haven't heard of breast reductions going smaller than C cup), go off T to regain my smooth skin and lighter body hair, have labiaplasty to make it "smooth" down there and would still be able to express myself as male, female or both.

BUT, that is a difficult route to go down. And it is a double-edged sword because I do not know if going off T and resuming my body's natural state of estrogen will kick-start dysphoria, even if the periods are gone forever. Periods were a huge source of dysphoria pre-T along with having a vagina and boobs.

Pursuing my transition to gain a feminine male's body is a way to kill two birds with one stone - I can pull off the masculine girl look and still look like a femboy without giving up my desire to be completely free of female bits. I have been looking into breasts prosthesis but part of me would just be happy being a flat chested girl/boy who is sometimes a boy/girl.

I know now that regardless of how fluid my gender identity is, I know that my physical sex has to be effeminate male in terms of appearance.

Sorry for the rant.

[Ativan Prescribed]

Perhaps it would be a good idea to read the SOC in the language of your choice.
The SOC was put together by transgender friendly and transgender professionals because there wasn't any standard.
In other words, previous to it, there was the old standard that was used extensively by gatekeepers to lazy to update their own standards and left it for individuals to pretty much run the maze they were dropped into once they decided to actually do something for themselves.

It is the starting place, somewhere outside of the preconceived notions that many professionals had, and unfortunately still have. (run away from these shysters)
It is a standard for professionals to have a beginning, a place to start when it comes to their clients individual care.
It took a monumental effort by a group of professionals to put the best verifiable information into a standard that others could use.
While there is far more information available for individuals needs, wants, and desires, those individual needs are beyond the scope and intention of it.
It is a place to start from, were none existed before.

It took a group of people to organize themselves as professionals just get it started.
A lot of information had to be looked at and opinions sorted out from verifiable facts, which were fairly scarce at the time.
While these professionals in their chosen professions took it upon themselves to organize this information for other professionals to use as a starting point to help them better serve their clients, they are well aware that it doesn't address each and every individuals wants and needs.
It is up to the individuals who have read and at least tried to understand what the SOC is and has done for them, to encourage their own chosen professionals to inquire about their individual questions, needs, and wants.

It is by no means and never was, if one takes the time to review the information (takes less time than reading all of the comments made in this forum since last November) the gatekeepers bible of care, it is not another version of the DSM for transgenders, it is the minimum of care, the set of standards, a place to start from.
If your chosen professional, that you as an individual have made the choice of, doesn't understand the very simple and basic approach of this, I suggest that you as individuals either let them know it is the minimum and not the defined and confined set of standards that so many people are confused that it is, simply because they have read far to many times about all the bitching people have done over the years, simply because it doesn't address their own unique individual needs as they see them.
Those individual needs can be addressed by your own professionals research into what is available at this time for your individual needs.
If your professionals cannot understand that the SOC is merely the starting point of their understanding of what the minimum of care should be, I suggest finding a real professional and leave the ones who profess to be, but are no more than those who are stuck in the past restrictions of their own opinions and knowledge.

Since the SOC 7 first came out, it became the starting point for many research projects that before would have been denied the funding they needed, because there wasn't any see-able justification for them.
The SOC opened the doors for much of the research that has gone on, is going on, and continues to be ongoing.
It is not the function of the SOC 7 to address each and every aspect of individuals needs, but it does organize what available verified information there was when it was first introduced.
Just that information alone took several years to be compiled and verified and then... put into a comprehensible set of standards to be used.
Prior to that, you had nothing more than the old gatekeepers opinions and lack of general knowledge, because it wasn't organized into any known real and current set of standards and the ones used were more than horrible in how they were interpreted.
Which was based on the old versions of the SOC, and taken as the gatekeepers bible of what they were willing to do for you.
It is not the last word in care for transgenders, it is the starting place, the beginning of the care needed for each individual.
It is very plainly written out in the context of it.

I'd suggest rather than cherry picking out the things you can and cannot find that pertain to your own individual wishes desires wants and needs, and instead, realize that with all of the information and research since it was first presented, to have that overload of new information included, takes as much time and certainly now, more effort by even more people to include it in the standards of care, which is what it is, not the book of available information, but the minimum care you are initially deserving of.

It is up to you, as it is in any field of medical and psychological needs, to find that right professionals that are at least willing to research and update their own understanding of what is current and relevant for your own individual needs.
If you or your chosen professionals fall short of the effort needed to compensate for your own individual wants needs and desires, it is not within the scope of the SOC 7 to fix that for you as an individual.

Revisions are being made as they can, but really, knowing and working with some of these people and going to the institute that had a major influence in it's origins, they are doing the best they can with the very limited amount of funding and help that they have.
They are underfunded, need more people willing to give their own time to it, and the amount of new information that has come from it in the first place is astounding, yet readily available to anyone who wishes to take the time and make the effort needed to tailor what is the minimum, to their own maximum benefit.
And for those who don't know or have even considered, a majority of the people who have and are working on the upkeep of needed revisions are transgender themselves, but professionals first, dedicated to providing the best available verified information they can.
They have put in more time and effort than any individuals not involved with it, that I have ever met IRL or online.

[Deleted]

I did cherry pick and shoot my mouth off again.

Will read it, entirely.

Ativan thanks for this thread.

[EchelonHunt]

Apr 3, 2015 22:03:38 GMT 8 Ativan Prescribed said:

If your chosen professional, that you as an individual have made the choice of, doesn't understand the very simple and basic approach of this, I suggest that you as individuals either let them know it is the minimum and not the defined and confined set of standards that so many people are confused that it is, simply because they have read far to many times about all the bitching people have done over the years, simply because it doesn't address their own unique individual needs as they see them

Yes, I will be letting my psychiatrist know next time.

I am aware that the SOC is in place to help the individual come to terms and allow them to experiment in their gender expression and identity, to make sure they are confident in their ability to move forward with treatment and if they do not wish to pursue treatment, then that is OK. It was not my intention to bash those who had worked hard at putting the SOC together, I apologize if I came across that way.

[Deleted]

I recall the days when the Benjamin Standard of Care was the end all for everyone with all of the gatekeepers dutifully standing guard at their posts. Happily and willfully I sidestepped all of that nonsense because I would never have been caught dead wearing a f-king dress and makeup for an entire year to satisfy the whims of these people to get to the place I wanted to be which is where I am now. Money talks and shit walks!