Gender-affirming care
What to know
Gender-affirming care is a comprehensive approach to health care that enables people to align with their gender identity. The care can be social, psychological, or medical. Examples include hormone therapy, updated pronouns on medical records, and breast augmentation or reduction. While gender-affirming care is culturally associated with transgender people, it is accessed by people of all genders, including cisgender people. This fact provides important context for accurate reporting.
With respect to transgender people specifically, framing access to gender-affirming healthcare as “critical” or “life-saving” medical care can help communicate its established efficacy and safety when appropriately administered. Lack of access to this type of care has been shown to raise the risk of substance use and other mental health harms for transgender people.
The Trans Journalists Association urges reporters to avoid invasive questions and to use medically accurate terms when such details are necessary. Examples of social or behavioral gender-affirming care for transgender people include name or pronoun changes, clothing or hair changes, and therapy. Not every trans person chooses or has access to gender-affirming surgery, and rates vary based on a range of factors.
When reporting on transgender communities, it is especially important to protect sources, who face increased risk of violence, discrimination or harassment. Offering sources anonymity, including with photography that does not show their faces, can be important for safety and building trust.
When reporting on attempts to withhold gender-affirming care—for example, the Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in United States v. Skrmetti, which upheld state bans on gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors—it’s critical to specify the type of care, how common or uncommon it is, reported effects, and the status of medical organization support for its necessity.
With specific respect to minors, most gender-affirming care before puberty is psychosocial. When developmentally appropriate, puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy can be carefully considered options. States have different policies on which treatments require parental consent before being administered to minors—for example, Massachusetts has considerations that may allow minors to access such care without parental consent, while parents in Florida could lose custody of their children if they allow gender-affirming care.
Procedures such as top surgery (surgery to remove or augment breast tissue) and bottom surgery (surgery to reshape or reconstruct genitalia) are rare for minors. So is detransitioning or “regret” about transitioning. In any story on this topic—whether an article, headline, subheadline, social media post, etc.—repeating false statements without immediately adding facts to counter them spreads misinformation.
While people of all genders seek gender-affirming care, transgender people specifically have been targeted by rhetoric and policies that block access to it. In 2025, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled that banning gender-affirming care for minors did not constitute discrimination on the basis of sex. The court’s majority argued that people were being denied care based not on a status covered by the 14th amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, but on a specific diagnosis: gender dysphoria. That said, because a diagnosis of gender dysphoria has often been a criterion for accessing gender-affirming medical care in the first place, the ruling effectively allowed states to prohibit care specifically for transgender minors. The ruling created an uncertain future for transgender minors in states implementing bans.
Gender dysphoria refers to significant distress from incongruence between gender identity and sex assigned at birth. This experience can lead to anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts and/or actions. Not all transgender or nonbinary people experience this distress. Referencing a diagnosis of gender dysphoria only when directly relevant to a story, and only when a source has established and shared that diagnosis, can help minimize harm and maintain accurate reporting.
Additional resources
- Stylebook and Coverage Guide (Trans Journalists Association)
- Fact Sheet: Evidence-Based Health Care for Transgender People and Youth (GLAAD)
- World Professional Association for Transgender Health
Summary
Gender-affirming care is a comprehensive approach to health care that enables people to align with their gender identity. Examples include hormone therapy, updated pronouns on medical records, and breast augmentation or reduction. While gender-affirming care is culturally associated with transgender people, it is accessed by people of all genders. With respect to transgender people specifically, framing access to gender-affirming healthcare as “critical” or “life-saving” medical care can help communicate its established efficacy and safety when appropriately administered. The Trans Journalists Association urges reporters to avoid invasive questions and to use medically accurate terms when such details are necessary. When reporting on transgender communities, it is especially important to protect sources, who face increased risk of violence, discrimination or harassment.