Transitional Urology: Barriers to Care

Purpose of Review Transitional urology is an emerging field focused on guiding adolescents with congenital genitourinary conditions into adult-oriented care. Despite increasing recognition of its importance, successful transition remains challenging. This review aims to identify and synthesize key barriers to healthcare transition across patient, provider, and system levels, and to examine how these barriers impact clinical outcomes. Recent Findings Recent literature demonstrates that barriers to transitional care are multifactorial and interrelated. Patient-level challenges include variability in transition readiness, psychosocial factors, and competing life priorities during young adulthood. Provider-level barriers include limited adult expertise in congenital urologic conditions, inconsistent preparation by pediatric providers, and communication gaps between care teams. At the system level, lack of formalized transition infrastructure, poor care coordination, and inadequate information transfer further contribute to discontinuity of care. These barriers are associated with measurable consequences, including loss to follow-up, accumulation of untreated urologic conditions, and increased reliance on acute healthcare services Summary Barriers to transitional urologic care significantly impact long-term health and quality of life outcomes for patients with lifelong urologic conditions. Structured, multidisciplinary transition models, early and individualized transition planning, and improved provider training represent key strategies to address these challenges. Future research should focus on developing standardized transition pathways, validating disease-specific readiness tools, and evaluating long-term outcomes to optimize care delivery for this growing patient population.