"A Day In The Life: Caring For Transgender Patients In New York City"-Jennifer Abbasi
Joshua Safer, MD, has become the first executive director of the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at the Mount Sinai Health System. Along with primary care and psychiatric support, his team offers medical approaches – hormones and a range of surgical options – to align patients’ physical appearance with their gender identity. This practice is known as gender-affirming care. The center also developed the first fellowship in the United States to train physicians in gender-affirming surgery and psychiatric. As an endocrinologist, Dr. Safer spends his clinical hours providing hormone therapy consultations. Early in his career Safer focused on thyroid conditions and says he feels fortunate to have ended up specializing in transgender medicine. He describes it as a happy accident, the result of taking over a departing colleague’s caseload years ago. “It’s certainly very cool to be in on these kinds of experiences with people,” he said. “I’m their doctor for a little period, and yet I’m getting to observe what is one of the greatest, exciting events of their lives.”
- Joshua Safer, MD, Executive Director of The Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai, Senior Faculty, Endocrinology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai