Kate Nambiar

  1. Home
  2. Wiki

Kate Nambiar
Alma materOriel College, Oxford
Occupations
Known forTransgender and sexual health activism

Kate Nambiar is a specialist doctor in sexual health and gender identity medicine. In 2012 she was one of the co-founders of Clinic T in Brighton, England.[1] Nambiar currently works for the Welsh Gender Service, as a gender specialist and endocrinologist.[2] She is also the Medical Director of the Terrence Higgins Trust.[3]

Early life and education

[edit]

Nambiar is of Chinese-Indian heritage.[4] She studied Medicine & Physiological Sciences at Oriel College, Oxford, graduating in 1996.[5][6] She began her gender transition as a student,[7] and found that her peers were unsupportive.[6][8] Nambiar's spoken openly about how she struggled to find a community and acceptance during the 90s.[9][6] Upon graduation she moved to London to begin her clinical training.[9][6] Nambiar began working in the NHS in 1999, and completed her PhD in immunology and bioinformatics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. In 2003, she specialised in HIV and sexual health.[10][11][12]

Medical career

[edit]

Clinic T

[edit]

In 2012, Nambiar co-founded Clinic T, a monthly sexual health clinic, geared towards transgender people in Brighton.[1] It was established in partnership with the Terence Higgins Trust, and Brighton LGBT Health Inclusion Project, as part of a local health study.[13] Nambiar explained that she advocated for the clinic while working in Brighton's Sexual Health and Contraception Service, after transgender and nonbinary people shared that they didn't feel there were any sexual health services that supported their needs.[6][14][5] In 2016 she was part of a team that shared the findings of a satisfaction survey that Clinic T had given to patients. The evaluation found that patients were largely happy with their care, and that the clinic helped meet the broader health needs of transgender patients.[13]

Reflecting on the experience, Nambiar admitted she previously had "internalised feelings of transphobia" around her gender identity.[6] But working in Clinic T helped her to reconnect with the transgender community.[14]

During her work at Clinic T Nambiar noticed the demand for gender identity clinicians, and in 2019 underwent training at the Tavistock and Portman Gender Identity Clinic.[15] Her work continued at Clinic T during this time, with Nambiar splitting her hours across the two services.[16][6]

Further work

[edit]

Nambiar has worked as a speciality doctor in Sexual Health and HIV at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust,[17] and previously served as the chair of the BASHH's (British Association for Sexual Health and HIV) Gender and Sexual Minorities Specialist Interest Group.[18][19]

She was also part of a team at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals that published guidance around gender inclusive language within perinatal care in 2021.[20][6] Throughout her work she has advocated for transgender men to have better access to cervical screening, by contributing to research, and participating in a 2019 Fox Fisher video, where she preformed a cervical screening exam on him.[19][21][22]

In 2022, she moved to Cardiff, and now works as a gender clinician and endocrinology specialist at the Welsh Gender Service.[10][2] In September 2022 she became the Medical Director of the Terrence Higgins Trust.[3] Nambiar is a member of the HIV Action Plan Task and Finish Group in Wales, contributing to the HIV Action Plan for Wales 2023-26.[23][24][25]

Nambiar was listed as "One to watch" on Wales Online's 2022 Pinc List of most influential LGBT+ people in Wales. She went on to make the full list in 2023 and 2024.[26][27][28]

The EastEnders team worked with Nambiar and the Terence Higgins Trust in 2023, to produce a storyline around one of the show's established character's being diagnosed with HIV.[29] Nambiar provided advice around the medical aspects of HIV, including the diagnosis, and what treatment options may be considered.[29] The Terence Higgins Trust experienced a 75% increase in website traffic in the month after the storyline began.[30][31]

In February 2025, Nambiar was listed on Attitude magazine's 101 STEM list, dedicated to influential LGBTQ+ people working within STEM.[32]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Trans Day of Visibility 2023". Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  2. ^ a b "Meet The Team – Gender.Wales". Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  3. ^ a b "Terrence Higgins Trust appoints new Medical Director". Terrence Higgins Trust. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  4. ^ Crosara, Nic (November 2021). "Are we whitewashing the trans experience?". Diva. pp. 30–31.
  5. ^ a b "Health inequalities experienced by Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans women". www.leighday.co.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Davies, Marika (21 April 2021). "Championing transgender rights: specialty doctor Kate Nambiar". BMJ. 373: n983. doi:10.1136/bmj.n983. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 33883171.
  7. ^ "Thinking Straight (Pt 6): Conversion and transitioning". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
  8. ^ "31: Reprodutive Health". Apple 팟캐스트 (in Korean). 14 October 2019. Retrieved 20 September 2025.
  9. ^ a b "Common rooms hold LGBTQ+ Formal featuring speech by alumna Dr Kate Nambiar". Oriel College. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  10. ^ a b "Kate Nambiar | AIDS 2024 | International AIDS Society (IAS)". www.iasociety.org. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  11. ^ "Kate Nambiar, MD, PhD | AME". academicmedicaleducation.com. Archived from the original on 31 August 2024. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  12. ^ "Kate Nambiar - BSMS". www.bsms.ac.uk. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  13. ^ a b Machado, Bethan; Nambiar, Kate; Woodroffe, Tamara; Parnell, Alison; Richardson, Daniel (1 June 2016). "P105 A bespoke sexual health service for transgender people is highly acceptable and meets the broader health needs of this population". Sexually Transmitted Infections. 92 (Suppl 1): A55 – A56. doi:10.1136/sextrans-2016-052718.159. ISSN 1368-4973.
  14. ^ a b Stewart, Hadley (23 February 2023). "Dr Kate Nambiar on her sense of vocation". Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  15. ^ "Women's Early Career Academic Network (WeCAN) Seminar | School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences | Queen's University Belfast". www.qub.ac.uk. 11 June 2019. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  16. ^ "Clinic T Brighton - Free trans & non-binary sexual health service". Brighton Sexual Health and Contraception Service. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  17. ^ "24th Annual Conference of NHIVNA (Cardiff 2022) - Presentations". www.nhivna.org. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  18. ^ Ogbonmwan, Daisy; Hussey, Jane; Mitchell, Laura (1 August 2020). "Evaluating the clinical experience of sexual health trainees in the management of transgender, including non-binary, people within sexual health services". Sexually Transmitted Infections. 96 (5): 320–321. doi:10.1136/sextrans-2020-054460. ISSN 1368-4973. PMID 32675381.
  19. ^ a b "Improve cervical screening for transgender people, says expert". euronews. 24 July 2020. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  20. ^ Ruth (31 March 2025). "Free resources: Perinatal care for trans people". Dr Ruth Pearce. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  21. ^ Fox Fisher (4 April 2019). So, I've got a CERVIX... Retrieved 5 September 2025 – via YouTube.
  22. ^ Berner, Alison M.; Connolly, Dean J.; Pinnell, Imogen; Wolton, Aedan; MacNaughton, Adriana; Challen, Chloe; Nambiar, Kate; Bayliss, Jacob; Barrett, James; Richards, Christina (1 August 2021). "Attitudes of transgender men and non-binary people to cervical screening: a cross-sectional mixed-methods study in the UK". British Journal of General Practice. 71 (709): e614 – e625. doi:10.3399/BJGP.2020.0905. ISSN 0960-1643. PMC 8136582. PMID 34001539.
  23. ^ "HIV action plan for Wales 2023 to 2026 | GOV.WALES". www.gov.wales. 7 March 2023. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  24. ^ "The LGBTQ+ healthcare champions making waves in the NHS - CARDIFF LIFE". CARDIFF LIFE. 1 June 2024. Archived from the original on 16 October 2024. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  25. ^ Furet, Marine (2 May 2023). "Long Read: The Future of Sexual Health in Wales". Institute of Welsh Affairs. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  26. ^ Ali, Joseph (20 August 2022). "Pinc List 2022: Wales' most influential LGBT+ people". Wales Online. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  27. ^ Hoggan, Katie (17 June 2023). "Pinc List 2023: Wales' most influential LGBT+ people". Wales Online. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  28. ^ Hill, Jonathon (22 June 2024). "Pinc List 2024: Wales' most influential LGBTQ+ people". Wales Online. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  29. ^ a b Nambiar, Dr Kate (16 January 2023). "EastEnders' HIV storyline for Zack will end stigma and show how far we've come". The i Paper. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  30. ^ "HIV awareness still stuck in 1980s as EastEnders storyline reaches landmark moment | Terrence Higgins Trust". www.tht.org.uk. Archived from the original on 8 October 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  31. ^ "Fighting HIV misinformation: The answers you need about Zack's EastEnders story". Metro. 16 January 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2025.
  32. ^ "Attitude 101 2025: Here are the 10 influential figures who made our STEM list". Attitude. 14 February 2025. Retrieved 20 September 2025.