Little, Annika2023-09-182023-09-1820232023-09-18http://hdl.handle.net/1828/15388Several studies have identified the decision-making factors associated with medical tourism; however, the factors that affect decisions about gender affirming surgery (GAS) abroad specifically have not been researched. This study identifies these factors by using thematic and discourse analysis to examine 32 posts about GAS medical tourism across 3 Reddit forums or “subreddits”. This study found 4 main decision-making themes: cost, quality, access & availability and comfort. A state of saturation was achieved, indicating that the sample size was sufficient to capture the range of decision-making factors associated with seeking GAS abroad. The themes of cost and quality echo the already published general literature on medical tourism, while access & availability and comfort are unique in their decision-making contribution. Understanding why individuals choose to travel abroad for GAS, and what issues impact their decision of where to go, is crucial for improving these services for transgender individuals and achieving health equity.engender affirming surgerytransgendermedical tourismsocial mediahealth equityPoster