Starting Monday, Boulder Valley Women’s Health will begin scheduling appointments specifically for transgender patients, making it the first clinic in Boulder to reach out to that population for care.

Services at the center, 2855 Valmont Road, will include hormone therapy as well as general reproductive healthcare.

Susan Levy, executive director of Women’s Health, said working with the transgender population is a natural fit for the organization, which already makes it a priority to serve patient populations that face barriers when trying to access healthcare.

“I think it’s a logical progression for us,” she said. “We already are very tuned into the various stigmas that attach around sex and sexuality. … We already don’t make assumptions about our patients — whether about their sexual habits or who their sexual partners are, any of that. That’s not our job as a healthcare provider.”

Now, local transgender people who are interested in undergoing hormone therapy to more closely align their bodies with the gender they identify with have to travel to Denver or beyond, unless they find an individual doctor who’s willing to work with them locally. And many transgender patients also travel to Denver even for routine procedures because they know of medical practices in that area that are “safe” from an emotional and cultural perspective.

Boulder County Public Health is working to change that. The county’s OASOS program — which supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning youth — launched the Boulder County Transgender Health Task Force last year to help local healthcare providers learn how to make their practices more inclusive.

That can mean providing training for staff members about how to be respectful — which could include asking which pronoun the patient prefers — tweaking their paperwork to make gender choices less black-and-white, designating gender-neutral restrooms and then broadcasting that the clinic is a safe place by posting signs and getting the word out.

“It’s not like it’s rocket science; it’s just that we need to have these conversations,” said Melissa Marsh, OASOS program coordinator.

And Marsh said healthcare providers in the community are enthusiastic about the concept. The task force hosted a conference last year, and Marsh had to turn people away. Another conference is scheduled this spring, and Marsh hopes to attract more alternative practitioners, such as massage therapists and acupuncturists, as well as doctors and nurses.

Out Boulder is represented on the task force and also worked with Women’s Health to help set up the new program for transgender patients. Out Boulder helped Women’s Health tap into the local transgender population and find out what services they want.

“People said they would appreciate local services, both from the convenience perspective and from the perspective of the visibility within our own community of that active level of support,” said Aicila Lewis.

Marsh said the services offered beyond hormone therapy at Women’s Health are particularly helpful because reproductive health issues can be some of the most difficult to address for transgender people.

“If they’re going in for gynecological services, they’re going to have to talk about the fact that they identify as male and they need a Pap smear. That’s so awkward,” Marsh said. “I can’t even tell you how much joy the fact that they offer so many services brings me.”

Contact Camera Staff Writer Laura Snider at 303-473-1327 or sniderl@dailycamera.com.