Translations:Transition/14/en

Historically, eligibility criteria for medical treatment has presented a barrier for nonbinary individuals, specifically the 'real life test' (RLT) component which was later renamed the 'real life experience' (RLE). The website of the London NHS gender identity clinic states, "There is a two year Real Life Experience (RLE) of living in the reassigned gender role at the GIC for people who want to have genital reconstruction surgery (GRS). This is dated from the start of full-time gender role transition after which they can be assessed for referral for GRS. The RLE includes at least a year in some form of agreed occupational activities." [1]. Nonbinary individuals requesting genital reconstruction surgery (GRS) are generally unable to satisfy clinicians in relation to the RLE criteria as there is little social or legal recognition of the nonbinary demographic. On the 1st December 2010, the University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies hosted the final public forum in its series on gender and radical biomedical advances, “Transitioning gender: the challenges of radical technologies”, in association with the Guardian and supported by Cambridge University Press [2]. One of the speakers was Dr Richard Green, former research director and consultant psychiatrist of the London NHS gender identity clinic, who referenced “third gender or no-gender person(s)” seeking surgery to “remove breasts or male genitalia” and calls this a “medical dilemma for physicians because there’s no real life experience. Its either surgery, or not”.