By empowering clients to be well-informed medical consumers and by delivering care providers from the straijacket of inadequate diagnostic standards and stereotypes, this book sets out to transform the nature of transgender care.  In an accessible style, Gianna Israel and Donald Tarver discuss the key mental health issues, with much attention to the vexed relationship between professionals and clients.  They propose a new professional role, that of "Gender Specialist."

Chapters 3, 4, and 5 provide definitive information (in the context of consulting health professionals) on hormone administration, aesthetic surgery, and genital reassignment surgery.  Chapter 6 takes up the little-examined issue of HIV and AIDS among transgender people.  There is also a chapter devoted to issues of transgender people of color, as well as a chapter on transgender adolescents.

The book contains a wealth of practical information and accounts of people's experiences about coming out to one's employer or to one's friends or spouse.   Several essays spell out the legal rights of transgender people with regard to insurance, work, marriage, and the use of rest rooms.

The second part of the book consists of thirteen essays on a range of controversial topics.  They include three personal stories of transgender life, one essay on the new academic field of Transgender Studies, two essays on legal rights, three essays on medical issues, and two essays on the origins and possible resolution of the conflicts between therapist and client. The authors have also provided useful listings of organizations, centers, and World-wide Web sites.

"Professionals who work with individuals with gender identity issues and those with gender identity issues themselves have long needed a comprehensive guide to treatment. Finally, it is here.  Gianna Israel and Donald Tarver have done a marvelous job of putting resource material from many fields into one easy-to-use reference book.  Transgender Care is without a doubt a breakthrough work, as it addresses issues of cultural diversity, sexual orientation, and lifestyle that have previously been overlooked or ignored in the clinical literature.  The supporting essays provide practical information about employment and insurance and confront the ethical difficulties of professionals who serve as gatekeepers to those who desire treatment.  The authors have done a service to caregivers and transfolk alike with this monumental work."- Dallas Denny, M.A.

Part I - Recommended Guidelines

1. Introduction
2. Mental Health
3. Transgender Hormone Administration
4. Transgender Aesthetic Surgery
5. Genital Reassignment Surgery and Gonad Removal (Castration)
6. HIV and AIDS
7. Cultural Diversity
8. Transgender Youth
9. Support Tools
10. Support Scenarios

Part II - Essays

1. Ethical Implications for Psychotherapy with Individuals Seeking Gender Reassignment, by Barbara F. Anderson, Ph.D., L.C.S.W.
2. Understanding Your Rights under the San Francisco Ordinance, by Larry Brinkin, Acting Coordinator, San Francisco Human Rights Commission
3. From the Perspective of a Young Transsexual, by Alexis Belinda Dinno
4. You Are Not Alone:  A Personal Quest for a Support System, by Ayme Michelle Kantz
5. A Midlife Transition, by Heather Lamborn
6. Insurance and the Reimbursement of Transgender Health Care, by Lisa Middleton, M.P.A.
7. Facial Surgery for the Transsexual, by Douglas K. Ousterhour, D.D.S., M.D.
8. What Is to Be Done?  A Commentary on the Recommended Guidelines, by Rachel Pollack, M.A.
9. Genital Reassignment Surgery:  A Source of Happiness for My Patients, by Eugene A. Schrang, M.D.
10. Over and Out in Academe:  Transgender Studies Come of Age, by Susan Stryker, Ph.D.
11. Transsexuality, Science, and Prophecy, by Max Wolf Valerio
12. Hormones, by Delia van Maris, M.D.
13. The Therapist versus the Client:  How the Conflict Started and Some Thoughts on How to Resolve It, by Anne Vitale, Ph.D.