The Association of Breast Surgery has published new Guidelines on The Care of Trans and Gender-Diverse Individuals in Breast Services

The ABS has today published new Guidelines for the care of Trans and Gender Diverse (TGD) individuals in breast services, providing a comprehensive approach to ensuring respectful, informed and effective care for TGD individuals in breast services.

The guidelines aim to provide inclusive and equitable healthcare by implementing evidence-based recommendations developed collaboratively by a multiprofessional group of experts and advocacy groups.

The scope of these guidelines covers all healthcare settings offering breast-related services, including symptomatic breast clinics, screening, breast cancer risk gene carriers, breast cancer care, and gender affirming chest surgeries.

By implementing these guidelines, healthcare providers can contribute to more inclusive and equitable healthcare for TGD individuals, ensuring they receive respectful and effective care.

Miss Chloe Wright, Consultant Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and lead author of the ABS Guidelines on the Care of Trans and Gender Diverse People in Breast Services, said:

“Trans and gender diverse people have been attending breast services without the guidance in place to ensure they receive consistently high quality, inclusive care. Three years ago I approached the ABS to ask whether they would support national guidelines to address that gap. They said yes immediately, and what followed has been three years of genuinely collaborative, expert-led work that I am enormously proud of.

These guidelines cover the full breadth of breast care - from symptomatic services and screening, through to oncology, genetic risk, and pathways to gender affirming chest and breast surgery. They were developed by a large multidisciplinary team of experts, and crucially, with advocates and experts by experience involved from the very beginning. That community involvement is what gives me confidence that we have got the accuracy, the language, and the ethos right.

I hope that every breast service in the UK will read these guidelines and use them. Trans and gender diverse people deserve the best possible care and now clinicians have the tools to deliver it."

Access the guidelines