Primary Care

Why choose UCLA Health for gender health?

The UCLA Gender Health Program’s primary care practice has a mission to provide healthcare for children, adolescents, and adults who are transgender or gender-diverse that is sensitive to everyone’s individual needs.

For transgender or gender-diverse patients seeking primary care, our services include:

• Primary care: We can provide primary care at our Santa Monica site, or connect you with a primary care provider in another location who is sensitive to the needs of the transgender and gender-diverse community. These services may include:
  • Preventive care: Based on your personal and family health history, we can help you determine your need for disease screening, including cancer, diabetes, and cholesterol. Gender-specific cancer screening (breast, cervical and prostate) in TGD patients is a uniquely challenging area, and we stay up-to-date on the most recent research and recommendations.
  • Vaccinations: We offer a full array of vaccinations, and can help you to determine which are most important for you.
  • Chronic disease management: We can manage many common chronic diseases and refer you for specialty care for those that are more complex.
  • Sexual health: These services may include prevention of and testing for sexually transmitted infections, and pregnancy prevention. For patients undergoing transition, we can discuss reproductive goals and refer you to specialists to preserve fertility options.
• Management of hormone treatment or referral for specialty care: We manage certain hormone treatments from our primary care office and can refer to endocrinologists on our team as needed or desired.
• Behavioral health services: We provide assessment, brief intervention, and referral assistance for behavioral health concerns such as anxiety, depression, and social difficulties. We can assist with documentation that may be needed for gender-affirming procedures.
• Referral coordination for gender-affirming surgeries: We can refer you to surgeons to provide a variety of gender-affirming surgeries if you desire. We can assist with coordinating coverage for these services through your insurance, when possible.
• Care Coordinator: At the UCLA Gender Health Program, we understand the unique challenges that gender-diverse and transgender patients face when searching for health care. Providing personalized care involves collaboration between specialty physicians, which is why we have a Care Coordinator as the first point of contact. Our dedicated Care Coordinator provides our gender-diverse patients with assistance in navigating the UCLA Health system, specifically including:
  • Providing information about UCLA’s Gender Health Program
  • Taking an initial intake assessment in order to understand each person’s health care needs and goals
  • Ensuring patients are established with a primary care provider
  • Coordinating referrals for gender-affirming surgeries
  • Identifying appropriate providers and coordinating referrals for other supportive services
  • Coordinating insurance and benefits coverage
  • Advocacy within UCLA Health in all aspects of care
  • Providing linkages to UCLA and community-based resources