Reach us by email at info@hthc.ca.
We receive messages from all kinds of people who have questions about gender-affirming care. We do our best to provide useful information in response, or to provide a referral to a place in Hamilton that can help.
The following questions and answers may assist in understanding what you can expect when you email us:
How long will it take for you to get back to me?
We try to respond to “high priority” messages within one week, and other messages within two weeks.
We generally consider three types of messages to be a high priority:
- health care providers in Hamilton who are serving trans, gender-diverse, and non-binary patients,
- trans, gender-diverse, and non-binary people in Hamilton trying to connect to services, and
- family and friends of trans, gender-diverse, and non-binary people experiencing difficulty connecting to gender-affirming care.
If you don’t hear back from us, please check your spam folder for our reply.
Can you call me?
No. At this time our team does not have the capacity to respond by telephone. When using the contact form on our website, please include an email address where we can send our response, and double-check that it’s correct.
Can I make an appointment?
No. The coalition is not a medical clinic and we do not have medical staff who provide direct services. We are often confused with the Trans Community Health clinic at Shelter Health Network. If you are trying to contact that clinic, refer to the information on the TCH website.
We are a coalition focused on advocacy work. We do not have have a fixed office space and do not offer appointments.
How do I find a gender-affirming doctor?
Maybe we can help. If you are having difficulty connecting with a doctor who can answer questions about gender identity and provide gender-affirming care, our team will usually want to know more details about you before making a recommendation. You may consider including this information in your initial email to us:
- How old are you?
- Do you currently have a family doctor? If so, have you discussed gender-affirming care with that doctor?
- Where in Hamilton do you live?
- How far would you be willing to travel?
It can be difficult to find a doctor that can provide the care you need. The COVID-19 pandemic has made connecting to a doctor substantially more difficult. While we are not able to help in every case, we do our best to connect people to adequate primary care.
Will you participate in a research project I’m developing?
Yes. Because our communications team is engaged in our information and referral project, our offer to research inquiries is usually to forward information on to our membership for consideration. If you would like us to forward an appeal from your project, please advise us what type of participants you are seeking, what is expected of the participants, and what the timeline for application or participation is. Please include in your proposal how your project addresses principles of research ethics.
We are better positioned to distribute research opportunities to medical professionals and medical/health science students than to trans, gender-diverse, and non-binary residents of Hamilton. If your research requires participants of the latter populations, we would be happy to try to connect you with other groups in Hamilton that might help.
Will you comment on a story I’m writing?
We make an effort to respond directly to questions from reporters on the capacity of Hamilton’s health care systems to provide gender-affirming care.
For other press inquiries, we will generally share the question with our membership or with one of our organizational members that we feel is best prepared to respond.
We regret that we are usually unable to accommodate requests for same-day comments and interviews.
Can you help me if I’m not in Hamilton?
We collect information about gender-affirming care in Hamilton and aren’t usually equipped to answer questions about other locations. We will do our best to find answers or connect you with someone closer to home that may be able to help.