Bulletin of Semashko National Research Institute of Public HealthBulletin of Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health2415-84102415-8429FSSBI «N.A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health»280710.69541/NRIPH.2024.04.011Научная статьяAccess to gender-affirming and general healthcare for transgender people in the Republic of BelarusKirey-SitnikovaYanayana.kirey.sitnikova@gmail.comhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-9603-5114KumetsAlisaalisa.kumets@gmail.comhttps://orcid.org/0009-0009-6014-9134Uppsala UniversityT*Belarus271120244717907052025Copyright © 2025,2025<p>Background.Feedback from patients is an important source of information for improving healthcare. This study aims to investigate accessibility of gender-affirming and general healthcare for transgender people in the Republic of Belarus. Materials and methods. Thematic analysis of 16 oral interviews using the socio-ecological model. Results. Social factors complicating access to gender-affirming healthcare include: the lack of legal possibility to initiate hormone therapy before changing the gender marker; inaccessibility of medical transition for individuals under 18; psychopathologization of transgenderism; inability to change the identification number, which encodes gender; inability to enter marriage for individuals with the same legal gender. Institutional factors: centralization of gender-affirming healthcare in Minsk, which leads to geographic barriers and the system's instability; the need to pay for hormonal drugs out of pocket; long evaluation time and unpredictability; unnecessary evaluations; low quality of surgeries; the lack of connection between specialists; the lack of gender-neutral toilets; sex-based separation of specialists (gynecologist/urologist). Interpersonal factors: misgendering and deadnaming; the lack of properly defined diagnostic criteria; gender stereotypes of specialists; denial of service; breach of confidentiality. Intrapersonal factors: low awareness; psychophobia; the lack of self-confidence; concerns about the reactions of people around.</p>transgendertranssexualgender dysphoriagender incongruenceaccess to healthcareEastern Europeтрансгендерностьтранссексуальностьгендерная дисфориягендерное несоответствиедоступ к медицинской помощиВосточная Европа1.Bukhanovskiy AO. On the organization of medical care for patients with transsexualism [Ob organizatsii meditsinskoy pomoshchi bol’nym transseksualizmom] In: Krasavin LA, editor. On the organization of psychiatric and narcological care in RSFSR [Organizatsiya psikhiatricheskoy i narkologicheskoy pomoshchi v RSFSR]. Moscow: Ministry of Health of the RSFSR; 1991. p. 10—12 (in Russian).2.3.Karpov AS, Vvedenskiy GE, Dmitriyeva TB. 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