The question of transgender rights and identity is one of the most acrimonious issues in the Anglophone world. In Israel, however, the topic hardly comes up.
What, then, is the status of transgender people in Israel, and what sort of medical options are available to them? Daphna Shochat, who runs the Keshet Clinic, a clinic for gender reassignment at Wolfson Hospital, weighs in. Alex: Hi Dr. Can you first of all introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your work?
So in my day job for Maccabi, I treat all sorts of hormone problems like thyroids, etc. Alex: How many trans people are there in Israel and how many people come to see you on a regular basis? What has caused this increase is a whole different topic of conversation, obviously. But there are thousands of transgender people in Israel, and three clinics dealing with them in the country.
Alex: Tell us about the patients. Shochat: There are transgender males and transgender females. Transgender females are people who were born with a male body but who feel that they are women. Transgender men go through the opposite process.
And there are lots of in between cases, especially in patients born with a female body. People also define themselves as not having any gender. They can be anywhere on the spectrum between feeling like they belong to the female gender or the male gender.
