Endocrine Society reexamining clinical guidelines for gender-affirming care: Report

The Endocrine Society is initiating a three-year reevaluation of its guidelines for gender-affirming care, according to a CNN report Monday.

The regularly scheduled process is not related to the political focus on the care.

The Endocrine Society is the medical community’s leading authority on gender-affirming care guidelines, helping the group’s 18,000 members better understand, diagnose and provide care for transgender patients, as well as those with hormonal disorders or disease.

Gender-affirming care is medically necessary care provided to transgender patients to help with transitioning from their gender assigned at birth to their true gender. Care can include hormone therapy or surgical procedures. 

The society’s current guidelines, generally considered a gold standard and cited by LGBTQ advocates and the medical community, outline the best courses of treatment for transgender adult and minor patients.

Gender-affirming care for minors has come under intense scrutiny in recent years from conservatives, criticized as invasive or unnecessary. The American Civil Liberties Union tracked 460 laws introduced in state legislatures targeting the LGBTQ community, many of which include restrictions on access to gender-affirming care.

Special attention has been paid to gender-affirming care for minors, which has been banned in multiple states in recent years, including most of the South. Since the beginning of 2024, laws banning gender-affirming care for minors have been legally challenged in Ohio, Idaho, Louisiana and Alabama.

Care for minors has been endorsed by nearly every major medical association, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The Endocrine Society most recently updated its guidelines for gender-affirming care in 2017.