Plenary: Perspectives on primary care approaches to prescribing endocrine treatment for gender incongruence
The practicalities of prescribing for gender incongruence present challenges to clinicians across the NHS and create barriers to safe patient care. Many Adult Gender Services (AGS) do not currently prescribe treatment directly and make recommendations regarding prescribing and monitoring to primary care colleagues. Meanwhile, some clinics provide initiation of gender-affirming endocrine treatment, with the goal of transferring long-term prescribing of treatment to primary care settings, following stabilisation. While The Levy Review recommended that all English AGS adopt the latter model, this does not obviate the need for primary care models that provide endocrine care following specialist input. Indeed, there will be an urgent need for reliable, effective models to take over treatment seamlessly and avoid saturation of AGS. A variety of different approaches to this exist across the British Isles. This session aims to explore the core features of three different models and share knowledge and experience to support services, clinicians, and commissioners in developing models of care.
Speaker
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Helen Greener
Helen Greener is Clinical Lead for the Northern Region Gender Dysphoria Service, which is an NHS commissioned Adult Gender Service based in Newcastle. She has been working in this role since 2010 and originally trained as an Old Age Psychiatrist. -
Hil Aked
Hil Aked is a writer, researcher and activist with a background in political sociology whose work has appeared in the Guardian, Independent, Sky News and Al Jazeera, as well as volumes from Pluto Press and Zed Books/Bloomsbury. Their first book Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity, published by Verso, was shortlisted for the Bread & Roses Award 2024. They also work as Research Coordinator at trans organisation Gendered Intelligence. -
Jonathan Wilson
(Alexander) Jonathan Wilson is a gender clinician at the Welsh Gender service and lead clinician for Cwm Taf Morgannwg UHB Local gender team clinic. A GP by background, who has been working in Gender Medicine since 2020. -
Paul Nathan
Paul Nathan retired from being a GP principal and set up GPwER service, which cares for trans patients who have accessed NHS care and are registered with a Derbyshire GP, when the GP needs extra support with care. He also works at the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health Care. In the past, he has held a number of roles including GP trainer, GP appraiser, first wave Primary Care Trust Clinical Chairman and Chief Clinical Information Officer for Derbyshire.