Accessing Gender-Affirming Care in Crisis: Lived Realities of Transgender Women and Men in Northern Nigeria Amidst Funding Cuts

Abstract Book of the 5th International Conference on LGBT studies

Year: 2026

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Accessing Gender-Affirming Care in Crisis: Lived Realities of Transgender Women and Men in Northern Nigeria Amidst Funding Cuts

Ibrahim Hassan, Aleeyah Baana Ibrahim

ABSTRACT:

Access to gender-affirming care remains a critical yet under-documented challenge for transgender women and men in Nigeria, particularly in the northern regions where legal restrictions, sociocultural norms, insecurity, and shrinking civic space intersect. This study explores the lived realities of transgender persons seeking gender-affirming healthcare in Northern Nigeria, with a specific focus on the compounding impact of recent funding cuts affecting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), HIV, and community-led health interventions.
Drawing on community-based evidence, programmatic experiences, and qualitative insights from transgender individuals and service providers, the paper examines structural, institutional, and social barriers to accessing affirming healthcare. These include criminalization under the Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act, shariah law, stigma within healthcare settings, lack of trained providers, fear of violence, and the collapse or downsizing of donor-supported services. The withdrawal of international funding has further intensified vulnerabilities, disrupting access to hormones, mental health support, referrals, and safe community spaces.
The findings highlight how transgender communities navigate survival through informal networks, self-medication, underground care pathways, and community solidarity, often at significant physical and psychological risk. The paper argues that funding cuts do not occur in isolation but actively exacerbate exclusion, health inequities, and human rights violations.
This research contributes to global discussions on gender identity, healthcare access, and structural inequality, while calling for rights-based, locally grounded, and sustainable models of gender-affirming care in hostile and resource-constrained contexts.

Keywords: Access To Healthcare; Funding Cuts; Gender-Affirming Care; Nigeria; Transgender Health