What are the WPATH Standards of Care?

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) publishes the closest existing standards of care for transgender treatment, known as the WPATH Standards of Care (SOC). These are non-binding guidelines rather than legally enforceable medical standards. The latest version, SOC-8, removed specific minimum age requirements for medical transition procedures, replacing them with "strengthened criteria" to allow individualized assessment. WPATH claims this change enables every transgender/gender-diverse adolescent to receive care "at the appropriate time" rather than using a "one-size-fits-all" approach.

However, detransitioners report that these guidelines are often circumvented in practice. Patients describe receiving hormones and surgeries with minimal psychological evaluation, despite WPATH guidelines suggesting longer assessment periods. The voluntary nature of these standards means medical providers can claim compliance while providing inadequate care. A collective of post-operative patients specifically criticized SOC v.7 for lacking accountability mechanisms for surgeons, insufficient training requirements (some surgeons observe only one week before independent practice), absence of standardized data collection on complications, and failure to ensure continuity of care for postoperative complications.