On October 27-28, 2014 in Moscow took place the 2^nd Regional practical Conference ‘Eurasian Trans Health’. The same as last year, healthcare professionals and representatives of civil society organizations got to know successful foreign practices, exchanged their experiences and, with a glance of regional specifics, discussed the problems of medico-social follow-through for patients seeking support due to their sex or gender identity.

     In the Conference organized by the “FtM Phoenix" Group with the support of the Open Society Foundations and “menZDRAV” Foundation, participated over 60 guests from 8 Eurasian countries, including Chief Nonstaff Endocrinologist of the Ministry of Health of Republic of Belarus, member of the Inter-departmental Commission for medico-psychological and social rehabilitation of individuals with a syndrome of gender refusal under the Ministry of Health of Republic of Belarus Alla Shepelkevich, MD, and colleagues, Honored Doctor of Ukraine, Sexual pathologist General of Kiev, sexual pathologist of the highest category, Prof. Boris Vornik, General Director of CJSC ‘Scientific Center for personalized psychiatry’, a psychiatrist Nadezhda Solovieva (Moscow, Russia) and colleagues, Director of the Public Association ‘The Institute for Human Health’ Dmitriy Tereshkevich (Astana, Kazakhstan), representatives of the public organizations: Labrys (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), Kyrgyz Indigo, Rakurs (Arkhangelsk, Russia), Center of socio-informational initiatives ‘Action’ (St. Petersburg, Russia), Equal Opportunities (Dushanbe, Tajikistan), Insight (Kiev, Ukraine), initiative groups Alma-TQ (Almaty, Kazakhstan), Tendik (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), Access (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) and others.

     Via Skype presentations the successful foreign practices of organizing the medico-social follow-through for transsexual, transgender, and gender non-conforming people on the first day of Conference were presented by Director of the Department of Support to Strategic and Participatory Management of the Ministry of Health of Brazil Katia Souto and colleagues, on the second day – by Medical Lead of Transgender Health Information Program of Vancouver Coastal Health (British Columbia, Canada) Gail Knudson, MD, and by Program Director of Transgender Health Services of the Department of Public Health of San Francisco (California, USA) Conrad Wenzel. Skype presentation with current state of ICD-10 revision was given by the WHO consultant Ezster Kismodi, JD. Concurrently the participants received the leaflets of the STP campaign for depathologization of trans identities in childhood.

     Within the bounds of a presentation-discussion of the Head of the Conference Organizing Committee Kirill Sabir there was broadcasted a video ‘Transgender rights are human rights’ produced by the Asian Pacific Transgender Network (APTN) with the support from UNAIDS under the ‘Zero discrimination’ program. Further discussion between the activists and the doctors followed in a format of specialized (‘mixed’) groups where representatives of countries with similar state of medico-social support for patients with discomfort about their sex/gender identity discussed joint problems and the opportunities to improve the situation. 

     The following work in the professional groups, with a split of participants by specialties, allowed to meet each other closer and to exchange experiences using the narrow-professional language. Many had time to discuss the draft Conference Resolution that is going to be finalized remotely and interactively.

     The Conference concluded by expressing wishes and receiving the certificates of participants.

     The Conference Organizing Committee expresses its deep gratitude to all partners, speakers, and participants and looks forward to successful realization of new ideas and their presentation at the ‘Eurasian Trans Health 2016’ Conference!

Conference photo album: https://plus.google.com/photos/112899433364085268639/albums/6083693202065473681