Despite growing the belief that the country is slowly easing into becoming an accepting society for members of the LGBTQ community, the fact still stands that it is in fact, at best, tolerant.

Such a society offers little help to make LGBTQ persons feel safe or like they belong. Coupled with personal struggles to identify oneself, these conditions make it particularly hard for queer people living in the Philippines.

While there are institutions that address general issues, there is still a growing need for LGBTQ-centric clinics that offer more than medical treatment but also understands and approaches each issue in a holistic way.

This is what drove Dr. Susana P. Campos to put up a center at the Manila Medical Center which is dedicated not only to catering to the needs of LGBTQ persons but as well as their families’.

The first of its kind in the country, the Gender Diversity Center aims to help people who are having gender-related identity issues by allowing them to self-assess their own biological sex, choose their sexual preference and ultimately, to help them transition to that gender role.

The GDC offers psychological services like Psychosexual Evaluation and Exploratory Counseling, Family Counseling and Psychiatric Assessment.

Their multidisciplinary team of professionals consists of psychiatrist, psychologist, and adolescent pediatrician among others, also offer Puberty Suppression Therapy, Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy, and Infectious Disease Consultation.

Gender Re-Assignment Surgery with the help of a reconstructive surgeon and a urologist will also be available soon as well as Legal Status Transitioning, and Pastoral Service.

Dr. Campos, a pediatric endocrinologist by profession, said that the decision to put up a gender clinic was informed by her experience with both patients and their parents who share their stories.

She also cited the alarming rate of suicide among the LGBTQ youth, as one of the driving force in putting up a clinic that goes beyond providing medical attention and treatment but one that will also “but journey with the person, and also the person’s family and loved ones.”

The doctors behind the Gender Diversity Center also worked closely with the University of California San Francisco whose Child and Adolescent Gender Center Clinic help set the framework for ManilaMed’s GDC.