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        Lancet: World's Transgenders Do Not Receive Adequate Health Care

   by VOA News

   A report Friday in the [1]Lancet medical journal says the world's 25
   million transgender people - a population facing a 60 percent rate of
   depression, and who have an almost 50 times greater risk of the HIV
   virus than the general population - are not receiving adequate medical
   health care.

   "Many of the health challenges faced by transgender people are
   exacerbated by laws and policies that deny them gender recognition,"
   says Sam Winter of Australia's Curtin University and one of the authors
   of the study.  "In no other community is the link between rights and
   health so clearly visible as in the transgender community."

   In Europe, eight countries do not legally recognize transgender people,
   while 17 European countries sterilize people seeking gender
   recognition.

   Authors of the study are urging the World Health Organization to move
   the transgender diagnosis from its manual as a "mental and behavioral
   disorder" to a chapter on "conditions related to sexual health."

   They are also calling for physicians to receive training about the
   health care needs of the transgender community whose health concerns
   include and extend beyond feminizing and masculinizing hormones.

   Since 2008, there have been 2,115 documented killings of transgender
   people around the world, but that number is probably higher as many
   murders were likely not reported, the study's authors say.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/lancet-world-transgenders-do-not-rece
   ive-adequate-health-care/3380368.html

References

   1. http://www.thelancet.com/series/transgender-health
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/lancet-world-transgenders-do-not-receive-adequate-health-care/3380368.html