Transgender patient experiences

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Understanding patients' experiences prior to treatment in transgender health clinics

• IRAS ID

  191776

• Contact name

  Lucy Jones

• Contact email

  lucy.jones@nottingham.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  8/LO/0708, REC reference number

• Duration of Study in the UK

  3 years, 3 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  This study concerns transgender people's experience prior to assessment at transgender health clinics. Transgender people are individuals whose gender identity does not correspond to the sex assigned to them at birth. Some transgender people seek sexual reassignment treatments to be congruent with their gender identity, requiring an assessment. This is a service offered at the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health, a national service for people living in England who present with unhappiness, discomfort and/or distress about the sex assigned to them at birth.

  Until recently, every person assessed at the Nottingham Centre was invited to write their life story as part of the assessment process. It is these autobiographical texts that will be considered in this study. We will create a unique electronic database ('corpus') of a sample of these life stories and then, using linguistic software and techniques, identify patterns of language which patients use across them. This will enable detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of patterns, themes, and key phrases in the texts. This analysis will reveal some of the typical challenges and experiences of patients prior to the start of their assessment at the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health. It is hoped that this information will help us to develop future interventions and support for people while they wait for treatment.

  This study therefore aims to:

  1. Present clinicians with an insight into patterns of the experiences of trans people in their own language, highlighting the complex pathway of their gender histories
  2. Help identify key risk and vulnerability factors that can result in patient difficulties before the treatment process, including mental health difficulties and other difficulties related to discrimination, and understand how they have dealt with them

  A further aim of this study is to:

  3. enhance linguistic knowledge and understanding of the relationship between language, transgender identity and experience

• REC name

  London - City & East Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  18/LO/0708

• Date of REC Opinion

  15 May 2018

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion