Gender-Affirming Surgery: Perioperative Medical Care

Gender-affirming surgeries are becoming increasingly common in the United States. For many transgender and gender-diverse patients, gender-affirming surgery is a critical aspect of their overall health and wellness and has a significant impact on their social functioning. Although often the role of the primary care provider, endocrinology specialists may also need to counsel their patients and collaborate with surgical teams.

This narrative review provides an overview of the preoperative assessment and perioperative management for the most common gender-affirming surgeries.

Preoperative assessment prior to gender-affirming surgeries can resemble assessment for other surgeries.

In the absence of data specific to gender-affirming surgeries, risk stratification and amelioration must use surrogate data from other populations.