Learn about gender affirming care for Trans, Two Spirit and non-binary youth.
What is Gender Affirming Care?
Hear how people with direct experience define gender-affirming care and explain the different ways that gender-affirming care can look across contexts.
Gender-affirming care refers to emotional, mental and physical healthcare that supports the whole person, including their gender.
Gender-affirming care respects who a person is and how they want to be referred to. It provides the support, care, and information they need to live authentically.
Trans, Two-Spirit and non-binary youth may need support with social affirmation, medical affirmation or both.
What is social affirmation?
Social affirmation (or social transition) describes non-medical changes a person may make as part of their gender journey. Examples include an affirming haircut, affirming clothing, or changing name or pronouns. This journey is different for every person. Social affirmation steps are reversible and have been shown to relieve anxiety, depression, and gender-related distress while improving mental health, happiness, and self-confidence. Social affirmation is an aspect of gender-affirming care that can be explored at any age.
What is medical affirmation?
Some youth will benefit from medical affirmation (or medical transition) which describes medical changes a person may make as part of their gender journey. Examples include puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Gender affirming medical care, for youth who need it, has been shown to improve mental health and overall wellbeing; and can reduce gender-related distress, mental health challenges, and suicidality.