How one diagnosis can help — and harm — gender-affirming care. For trans people who want to receive gender-affirming medical care such as hormone treatments or surgery, one requirement is often a diagnosis of “gender dysphoria,” which the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines as deep psychological distress around one’s gender. But not all trans people experience gender dysphoria. Many are just searching for the feeling of gender euphoria. Rather than have insurers cover medical care based on a “diagnosis” that conflates a social identity with a mental disorder, they should cover care based on medical necessity defined by accepted standards of medicine. Or as Dallas Ducar, the founding CEO of Transhealth Northampton, suggests, it’s time to provide gender-affirming care to trans people because they are trans, not because they have a specious diagnosis. In this week’s “First Opinion Podcast,” Ducar discusses issues around gender dysphoria and the need for trans-inclusive providers to take a holistic, person-based approach to care. Listen Now “If we by necessity say that dysphoria is part of the trans experience, we are inadvertently pathologizing an identity, and we are linking dysphoria with an identity either consciously or unconsciously,” Ducar said. Like what you hear? Subscribe to The First Opinion Podcast on your favorite platform. New episodes are released every Wednesday morning. | 
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