Community-engaged study explores aging experiences in transgender women, highlighting the need for stigma reduction efforts.
There is limited understanding of aging experiences among transgender (trans) women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The purpose of this community-engaged, formative study was to explore lived experiences and perceptions of aging among trans women in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. From August to October 2024, we conducted in-depth interviews with trans women (n = 19) 45 years and older and analyzed data using narrative and thematic techniques. Tranquilidad, meaning peace or tranquility, was the central theme related to participants’ experiences as older trans women and their hopes for aging. Key themes within tranquilidad included: (1) stability, (2) living freely, (3) family dynamics, and (4) peer and partner support. Salient threats to tranquilidad included economic precarity, social isolation, and the pervasive nature of intersectional stigma. Findings reflect that aging can be a joyful process and highlight the need for multi-level efforts to reduce stigma and improve quality of life for older trans women.
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Barrington et al. (2026) studied this question.
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