This page is part of the HL7 Cross Paradigm IG: Gender Harmony - Sex and Gender Representation (v1.0.0: informative1 - Informative) based on FHIR v5.0.0. This is the current published version in its permanent home (it will always be available at this URL). For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions
Standards History
History of Sex and Gender in HL7 Standards
HL7v2 History
- In HL7v2 2.3.1:
- The PID-8 field was labeled as “Sex”
- The field definition was “This field contains the patient’s sex”.
- Table 0001 was introduced with values for F, M, O, and U. This table did not have a formal Value Set definition, or include definitions for the codes.
- In HL7 v2.4:
- The name of the PID-8 field was updated to be “Administrative Sex”.
- The field definition remained “This field contains the patient’s sex”.
- Table 0001 was updated to include A-Ambiguous and N-Not applicable, but the table still had no formal Value Set definition.
- In HL7 v2.7:
- Chapter 2C was introduced for Code Tables, but no substantive changes were made to the sex codes or their definitions.
- In HL7 v2.9:
- The 0001 table was updated to identify a Concept Domain, Code System, and Value Set.
- The Value Set was given a definition of “Concepts specifying a patient’s sex for administrative purposes.”
- A new code was added for X-Non-Binary. This code included a usage note indicating that it was for jurisdictional use, and was driven by reporting requirements of some states in the US. This was intentionally a stop-gap measure. The HL7 meeting which added X-Non-Binary to table 0001 was the same meeting that initiated the Gender Harmony Project!
HL7v3 History
- HL7v3 adopted Administrative Gender as a concept.
FHIR History
- In FHIR DSTU1
- In FHIR DSTU2:
- Additional Patient.gender comments were added suggesting the use of Observations (when available) rather than Patient.gender for clinical decision support.
- In FHIR STU3:
- In FHIR R4:
- In FHIR R5: