(Reuters Health) - - Doctors who treat adolescents should find ways to ask them about their gender identity during office visits, researchers say.These discussions could help doctors know whether youngsters might benefit from gender-affirming medical and psychosocial support, the researchers write in the Journal of Adolescent Health."Medical providers cannot provide potentially helpful services and referrals if they do not know that their patient is transgender," said lead study author Dr. Carly Guss of Boston Children's Hospital.An estimated 150,000 U.S. adolescents identify as transgender, she said. Transgender youth face health disparities, including being at higher risk for depression, anxiety and suicide, compared to their cisgender peers."Asking all patients their gender identity and pronouns creates a gender-affirming environment," Guss told Reuters Health by email.Guss and colleagues surveyed the seven Leadership and Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) programs across the … [Read more...] about Doctors should ask teens about gender identity, experts say
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Healthy kids with sick sibling may hide emotions
(Reuters Health) - Healthy kids with chronically ill siblings may suppress their own needs as they adapt to shifting family dynamics that are focused on caring for the child who is sick, a research review suggests.While it's perfectly logical to assume healthy kids in this situation might experience strong emotions, running the gamut from anger to fear to stress, much of the research to date has focused on parents' perceptions of how children feel. Parents in these studies tended to think their healthy kids were coping well under the circumstances, researchers note in Pediatrics.But the current study tells a different story, based on the handful of studies that examined this issue by asking kids - not their parents - how they felt about living with a sick sibling."The novel finding was that in order for healthy siblings to get their emotional needs met, they adapted their behavior and identity over time to fit with the needs of the family, which focused on the unwell sibling," said … [Read more...] about Healthy kids with sick sibling may hide emotions