Dr. Joshua Safer, an endocrinologist who works with hormones at Boston University Medical Center, said being transgender is a biological condition where a person’s gender identity does not match the body parts he or she was born with.

Most effective treatment

Hormone therapy is by far the most effective treatment to help the person look the way they feel, said Safer, who is considered an expert in treating transgender individuals. Some of the patients he has treated were incarcerated in the Massachusetts state prison system, where they have had legal battles similar to those in Wisconsin.

“The individuals ... for the most part, they cannot live the way they feel,” he said. “It’s like convincing someone not to eat or do some other natural behavior.”

Jolie McKenna, the executive director of the LGBT Center of Southeastern Wisconsin, who used to work in corrections, agrees with the court decision to allow hormone therapy. She knows all about the benefits it can bring.

When she was born, she said she was considered “intersex,” where it was hard to determine what her gender was.