Gender Transition Male And Diverse Population Of Patients

Gender Transition: Male-to-Female Transgender Patients Nurses serve a wide and diverse population of patients. Identifying and understanding the transgender population is an area of little research and training for nurses. While it is estimated that less than 1% of the population identifies themselves as transgender, it is a population comprising of all races, ethnicities, religions, ages, and socioeconomic backgrounds (American Journal of Nursing, 2014). Society has long discriminated and denigrated lesbians, gay, bisexual, or transgender individuals. As awareness increases and new antidiscrimination legislation is introduced nurses have an obligation to seek education regarding the unique health needs of this community. Education†¦show more content†¦The word â€Å"transgender† is a broad term inclusive of many subgroups. Currently there is no single universal definition. For the purposes of this paper, transgender is defined as an individual whose gender expression is different from their birth sex. Sex, for the purpo ses of this discussion, is defined as the physical anatomy that currently defines male and female. Gender identity refers to the individual’s internal sense of being male, female, both, or neither. Transgender individuals feel discomfort between what the gender they identify internally with and their outward physical sex characteristics. Gender expression refers to how an individual presents themselves to society. Sexual orientation the physical or emotional attraction towards another person, whether male or female. This is different than gender identity. Transgender individuals may be attracted to persons of the same sex or opposite sex. This paper will address specifically the transition of those individuals born anatomically male but identify their gender identity as female. Male-to-female transgender individuals are often referred to as MTF individuals. It is difficult to identify a history of transgenderism as the word, transgender, has only recently existed. There are people throughout history who have been identified with transgender characteristics such as Joan of Arc and King Henry III of France. Additionally, American Indian tribes identified transgender individuals as having