About This Episode

This episode contains audio recorded inside Session 1240 at the 2026 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, held Saturday, May 16, 2026.

The session was a Continuing Medical Education offering titled Transgender Psychiatrists Speak: Reflections From Training, Patient Care and Professional Practice. It ran from 1:30 to 3:00 PM Pacific Time in Room 202 of the Moscone Center. The session was designated in-person only and was not offered as a hybrid event. CME credit was available to attending psychiatrists.

The session was chaired by Dr. Jack Drescher and presented by Dr. Lana Irons, Dr. Jack Pula, Dr. Tobias Murphy, and Dr. Jami Woods. We received the audio, verified its authenticity, and are releasing it in full. The only alterations made were to audio quality.

The Conference

The American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting is the largest gathering of psychiatrists in the United States. The 2026 meeting took place May 16–19 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. CME sessions at the meeting offer accredited continuing education credit to licensed psychiatrists and other mental health providers.

The Chair

Dr. Jack Drescher, MD is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He served on the APA’s DSM-5 Workgroup on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders, was Section Editor of the Gender Dysphoria chapter in the DSM-5-TR, and served on the WHO Working Group that revised gender diagnoses in the ICD-11.

At the 2025 APA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, Dr. Drescher presented alongside Dr. Scott Leibowitz in a session on pediatric gender medicine that the APA sought to keep from public view. LGB CC livestreamed the session on X; it was also covered by journalist Benjamin Ryan on his Substack, Hazard Ratio.

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The Presenters

Dr. Lana Irons, MD is a trans-identified male psychiatrist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. He earned his MD from Eastern Virginia Medical School and completed his Adult Psychiatry Residency and Chief Residency at SUNY Downstate, where he received a certification in psychodynamic psychotherapy through the Psychoanalytic Association of New York. He currently serves as a full-time attending psychiatrist with the NYC Health + Hospitals Domestic Violence Shelter Mental Health Initiative.

Dr. Jack Pula, MD is a trans-identified female psychiatrist in private practice in New York City and is affiliated with New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She completed her medical degree at SUNY Downstate Medical Center and her psychoanalytic training at the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. She has published on transgender mental health in peer-reviewed literature and has served in leadership roles focused on expanding transgender psychiatry training in residency programs.

Dr. Tobias Murphy, MD is a trans-identified female psychiatrist licensed in New York, Ohio, and West Virginia. She completed medical school and psychiatry residency at Marshall University’s School of Medicine and has additional training in neuropsychiatry and geriatric psychiatry. She is a member of the American Psychiatric Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

Dr. Jami Woods, MD, DPh is a trans-identified male psychiatrist and board-certified psychopharmacologist, formerly Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Vice Chair for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine. He holds subspecialty certification from the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology and has delivered CME presentations on pediatric gender medicine to national audiences of prescribers.

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