Toward version 7 of the world professional association for transgender health's standards of care: Psychological assessment and approaches to treatment

In the previous issue of the International Journal of Transgenderism, I reviewed the history of the development of the Standards of Care (SOC) of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (Coleman, 2009). In considering the next revision of the SOC, a number of articles were commissioned to examine various parts of the current WPATH SOC and to review the literature pertaining to those sections. These papers were designed to (1) review the evidence (and provide us with references), (2) point out where research is lacking and needed, and (3) make possible recommendations (significant and cosmetic) to the SOC based upon new evidence. This article introduces the second set of articles pertaining to psychological assessment and approaches to treatment.