WHO announced the development of a new LGBTQ health guideline. The World Health Organization confirmed many of its departments are making efforts to complete the said guideline for trans and other gender-diverse individuals.
These include GRE-DEI (Gender, Rights, and Equity - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), the Department of Global HIV, SRH (Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research), and HHS (Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections Programmes).
If you're an LGBTQ member, here's what you need to know about the new health guideline that the WHO is developing for your gender diverse community.
WHO Develops LGBTQ Health Guideline
WHO said that its upcoming LGBTQ health guideline aims to provide implementation and evidence guidance on health sector interventions, which are focused on enhancing utilization and access to respectful and quality health services for trans and other LGBTQ members.
Via its official website, WHO stated that the LGBTQ health guideline will focus on five areas:
- Provision of health care for trans and gender diverse people who suffered interpersonal violence based on their needs.
- Provision of gender-affirming care, including hormones.
- Health workers education and training for the provision of gender-inclusive care.
- Health policies that support gender-inclusive care.
- Legal recognition of self-determined gender identity.
The World Health Organization explained that a new guideline development group (GDG) will be established for the LGBTQ health guidelines.
The GDG's members will come from all WHO regions; acting intheir individual capacity. The international health agency clarified that GDG members will not represent any organization they are affiliated with.
"Members of the GDG for this guideline were chosen by WHO technical staff among researchers with relevant technical expertise, among end-users (program managers and health workers), and among representatives of trans and gender diverse community organizations," said WHO via its official website.
The health organization further stated that GDG members will not be commissioned or receive any financial compensation.
WHO LGBTQ Health Guideline GDG Meeting
The World Health Organization said that GDG members are expected to meet from February 19 to February 21, 2024, at the agency's headquarters in Geneva.
Once their conference begins, they will do the following:
- Suggest implementation considerations and highlight research gaps for the guidelines.
- Interpret the evidence, with explicit consideration of the overall balance of benefits and harms.
- Formulate recommendations, taking into account benefits, harms, values and preferences, feasibility, equity, acceptability, resource requirements, and other factors, as appropriate.
- Examine the grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation (GRADE) evidence profiles or other assessments of the quality of the evidence used to inform the recommendations on the five areas.
