Synergies in health and human rights: a call to action to improve transgender health (original) (raw)

2015 was an unprecedented year in the recognition of transgender rights in some highincome countries. However, this recognition in the public domain has yet to translate to a concerted effort to support the right to health of transgender people around the world. Transgender people continue to face a range of challenges that deprive them of respect, opportunities, and dignity and have damaging effects on their mental and physical health and wellbeing, as shown in the Lancet Series on transgender health. 2-4 These "situated vulnerabilities", as they are called in the Series paper by Sari Reisner and colleagues, 4 can prompt or aggravate depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidal behaviour among transgender people, which are exacerbated by biological risks, and social and sexual network-level risks, for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. 2 In their Lancet Series paper, Sam Winter and colleagues 2 write of a "slope leading from stigma to sickness". Moving forward, these health needs and vulnerabilities can be better addressed through improved understanding of the legal and social policies that promote harms and diminish the potential impact of health programmes. There is also a need for increased knowledge of the optimal content and models of clinical service provision, as highlighted by Kevan Wylie and colleagues' Series paper, 3 and of the epidemiology of communicable and Correspondence to: Sam Winter.

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