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Introduction. Transgender health disparities have been well documentedin the literature in recent years, as have the lack of transgenderhealth issues in medical education programs across the country. Methods. A prospective study was conducted with an hour-longdidactic lecture on transgender health being given to faculty, medicalstudents, and residents at the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita. The didactic lecture included educational informationand presentations by transgender persons. A pre-intervention andtwo post-intervention survey was given to assess attitudes, comfortlevel, knowledge, and beliefs regarding the treatment of transgenderedpersons and associated health concerns. A second post-interventionsurvey was given at 90 days. The question of what attendees plannedto do differently as a result of the intervention was asked. Results. The intervention provided a significant positive increase inattitudes, comfort levels, and knowledge with respect to transgenderhealth issues between the pre- and post-intervention surveys,however, did not provide a significant positive increase in beliefs ontransgender health issues. There was no significant change in attitude,comfort levels, knowledge, or beliefs from the post-survey after 90days. Four categories of what attendees planned to do differently as aresult of the intervention also were identified. Conclusions. A didactic lecture on transgender health issues canpositively change attitudes, comfort levels, and knowledge on transgenderhealth issues significantly with the changes sustaining after 90days. Beliefs tend to be much harder to change.Kans J Med 2018;11(4):106-109.

Transgender individuals have gender identity, gender expression, or behavior that differs from their biological sex assigned at birth.1 It is estimated that 0.3% of US adults identify as transgender, which is nearly 1 million people.2 While much is unknown in the field of gender incongruence, “a growing and persuasive body of evidence suggests that biological factors have a substantial role in predisposing some people towards gender incongruence”.2 The earliest recognition of gender nonconformity in Western medicine was in the 1920s and was labeled as a mental pathology.3 Gender Identity Disorder (GID) became a diagnosis in the American Psychiatric Association’s third edition of the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in the 1980s. GID was a mental pathology until the DSM-54 was released in 2012, when GID was dropped as a diagnostic condition. Now, the DSM-5 has only an overarching diagnosis of gender dysphoria. This newly defined diagnosis does not pathologize being transgender, instead it can occur when an individual who is transgender has distress related to the incongruence between his/her experienced and expressed gender. Psychological treatment targets coexisting emotional and mental morbidities. Thus, the trend has shifted from attempting to treat gender nonconforming individuals to being more accepting of them.2 To that end, this overview addresses what it takes to be a competent transgender provider, including knowing health needs, health disparities, and health coverage. Next, medical biases toward transgender patients are examined and current hormone treatment guidelines are outlined for both transgender men and women. Also, treatment options for transgender children and adolescents, along with aging patients, are discussed. The discussion concludes with trends, movements, and expectations for medical curricula.