Articles

Unique Causes And Manifestations of Eating Disorders Within Transgender Populations

Malina, Sula

Transgender populations are disproportionately impacted by eating disorders and disordered eating behaviors; however, transgender clients lack access to affirming and culturally responsive mental health care and are frequently undiagnosed. In addition, conventional treatment models for eating disorders do not attend to the unique causes and manifestations of eating disorders among transgender people, which include: minority stress and gender trauma; gender dysphoria and lack of access to safe, gender-affirming treatment; safety concerns and the need for passing; cissexism and resulting disempowerment; and pervasive, harmful beauty standards coupled with hyper-scrutiny of trans bodies. This project includes a summary and analysis of the existing literature and data regarding the causes of and current treatment recommendations for eating disorders within transgender populations. It also suggests a social-work-led shift within eating disorder treatment to center the sociopolitical forces which so often lead to such diagnoses.

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Also Published In

Title
Columbia Social Work Review
DOI
https://doi.org/10.52214/cswr.v19i1.7241

More About This Work

Published Here
August 29, 2022

Notes

transgender, eating disorders, culturally responsive treatment, minority stress, gender trauma, access to care, cissexism, anti-oppressive practice