This Transgender Awareness Week, every medical student in the UK can take Affirm's award-winning trans healthcare course for free. At Gender Plus, we're proud to endorse this training, and we urge every medical student who is eligible to sign up.
The five-hour, CPD-accredited course - Foundations of Gender: A Clinician's Journey - can be accessed free of charge from 00:01 on Friday 13 November until 23:59 on Friday 20 November, Transgender Day of Remembrance. All you need is to be a medical student, in current education, and to have an active university email address.
For those no longer in education, Affirm is also offering a 50% discount on all training, throughout the week.
A gap in medical training that patients feel
According to a review commissioned by NHS England and published in January 2026 by researchers at Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Aberdeen, most UK doctors still qualify with minimal training on LGBTQ+ health. As a result, the study suggests, just one in eight feel their knowledge of LGBTQ+ healthcare is sufficient.
We see what that gap means every day. Trans and non-binary people tell us they dread seeking care for fear of being misunderstood or discriminated against. Many clinicians, meanwhile, want to do right by their patients but worry about saying - and doing - the wrong thing.
The pressure on individual clinicians has only increased with the introduction of NHS England's revised guidance on privacy, dignity and safety in hospital accommodation, which states that trans patients should be "accommodated in line with their biological sex", while their clinical needs are met and privacy, dignity and safety are maintained for all.
What the course covers
Affirm's course is adapted from Gender Affirming Therapy: A Guide to What Transgender and Non-Binary Clients Can Teach Us, by consultant clinical psychologist Laura Scarrone Bonhomme, Dr Michael Beattie and Skye Davies. The book won the British Psychological Society's 2025 Practitioner Text Award and the American Psychological Association Division 44 Distinguished Book Award in 2025.
Its six modules cover:
Foundations of gender, including clinical pathways to gender-affirming healthcare
Understanding gender norms
Sexuality beyond labels
The history of trans health and how the socio-political context affects access
In their own words: interviews with trans and non-binary people about their experiences of care
The clinician's role: power dynamics, practical language skills and real-life case scenarios
The course helps clinicians build the habit of examining their own assumptions, so their practice stays safe and centred on each patient.
Why we endorsed Affirm
When we first reviewed the training developed by Laura and her team, we found it so comprehensive that we chose to promote Affirm across our network. It's rare to find training that combines clinical pathways, lived experience and practical language skills in one place.
The need for training to support trans and non-binary patients has never been greater, and medical students who invest their time will gain a huge amount of insight from which their patients will ultimately benefit.
Tomorrow's doctors will be the GPs, surgeons and hospital clinicians our patients see. Giving them a strong foundation now is one of the most effective ways we know to improve trans people's experience of healthcare.
How to sign up
Students can register here with their university email address.
Free access - and the discounted rates for everyone else - runs throughout Transgender Awareness Week, ending on Transgender Day of Remembrance - from 00:01 on Friday 13 November to 23:59 on Friday 20 November.
Medical schools interested in institutional access beyond Transgender Awareness Week can contact Affirm at Laura@affirm.lgbt
Please share this with any medical students, educators or clinicians in your life. Every student who takes this course is a future doctor better prepared to give trans and non-binary patients the care they deserve.
