“Good Thing We Survived”: Portuguese Transgender Adults’ Perspectives on Ageing and Future Care Needs

Abstract Book of the 7th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality

Year: 2026

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“Good Thing We Survived”: Portuguese Transgender Adults’ Perspectives on Ageing and Future Care Needs

Prof Dr Sara Guerra, João Martins; Inês Mota Silva

ABSTRACT:

Despite increasing recognition of gender diversity, little is known about how trans adults anticipate ageing, later life, and future care, particularly in Portugal. Life-course experiences of stigma, discrimination, and social exclusion may shape expectations regarding wellbeing and ageing trajectories. Exploring how trans adults imagine their future provides insight into anticipated vulnerabilities and desired ageing conditions. This qualitative exploratory study explored meanings, expectations, and concerns related to ageing, later life, and future care through semi-structured interviews with adults aged 18-40 years. Preliminary analysis included three transfeminine participants and followed thematic analysis.
Four themes emerged. Negotiating ageing and uncertain futurity captured ageing as both inevitable and psychologically distant, with participants often adopting present-focused coping strategies while expressing difficulty imagining themselves in older age or uncertainty about reaching it. Delayed transition and embodied ageing reflected tensions associated with later gender affirmation, including urgency to recover “lost time,” concerns regarding self-image, and transitioning within already ageing bodies. Imagining later life: autonomy, health, and desired futures encompassed participants’ aspirations for healthy ageing, financial stability, intimate relationships, community belonging, autonomy, and ageing in safe or familiar environments, alongside access to responsive public healthcare. Finally, Negotiating vulnerability, visibility, and sociopolitical futures captured concerns regarding discrimination in care settings, institutionalisation, sociopolitical regression, cumulative minority stress, and the desire for reduced visibility or withdrawal following years of exposure.
Findings highlight ageing as a process marked by temporal uncertainty, delayed identity affirmation, and anticipated vulnerability, alongside aspirations for safe and affirming futures, reinforcing the need for inclusive, trans-affirmative care systems.

Keywords: Gender Diversity; Healthcare Access; Institutionalization; Life Course; Minority Stress