I’ve been saying, “I was born without a uterus”, which so far seems to answer honestly without directly outing myself as trans.
Any thoughts on how to best navigate this? Ideally without disclosing I’m trans 😅
To any cis people wandering in from c/All, please review the rules of this community and consider you may not have the same first hand experiences as trans people.
Cis people are welcome to participate here so long as they’re not disrupting the safety of our community. Spreading misinformation and maintaining ignorance is not acceptable here.
In an ideal world being transgender would be of literally no consequence. We do not live in such a world. Being trans is life or death across the vast majority of the world. The disclosure of transgender status is a massive vulnerability that is unwarranted in >90% of medical situations.
This thread was not created with this discussion in mind. If it continues to be derailed I will lock the thread.
I was transfered to a specialist to start a new non-trans related medication. We had a zoom meeting and went through some test results before asking “is there any chance your pregnant?”
I laughed and said that wasn’t possible. She looked confused and started reading something on her other monitor. She muttered “Progesterone…?” and looking confused before turning back to me. “Okay Ma’am, just to be clear, you do NOT have a uterus correct?”
😂
ha, I got the “born without a uterus” line from a nurse doing my intake before my vaginoplasty- one of the nurses was doing what I assume was a pregnancy test and I think the other nurse realized I might be trans, so she awkwardly asked me if I was born without a uterus, while giving the other nurse a kind of corrective, “hey, listen up” look. The other nurse did treat me differently after that, and seemed visibly disgusted when I affirmed- but I think it was the nurse’s look that keyed it as being trans, because I was in a hospital that sees a lot of trans patients they had a kind of code or way of handling that which I’m not seeing elsewhere.
So I’ve just started to use that- I was born without a uterus, it’s true and it doesn’t necessarily out me.
Müllerian agensis is another way a woman could be born without a uterus, but I don’t know what the most probable explanations for a missing uterus might be (1 in 4,000 - 5,000 is the frequency of Müllerian agenesis, a lot less than trans women which is more like 1 in 100 - 200).
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I may be wading into a minefield here
You are. And not only that, you’re in a community aimed at trans folk, offering advice to trans folk who are aware of the reality of the situation in a way you very likely are not. That’s not a good position to start from when it comes to offering advice. Doubly so, when your advice appears to be coming from a position of “in a perfect world” rather than from the practical realities that trans folk have to deal with in the world as it is.
I’ve learned it’s actually pretty important for doctors to know someone’s status as trans
As with all things, this depends on the context. Sometimes, it’s relevant. Mostly, it’s irrelevant. And sometimes, knowing causes doctors to make mistakes about our healthcare needs when they incorrectly assume our medical symptoms align with those of cis folk of our assigned genders (this is particularly likely if the doctor is not familiar with trans health care).
On top of that, there is a thing called “trans broken arm syndrome”, in which doctors tend to immediately aim for HRT or transition surgeries as the cause of whatever ailment the trans person has. Again, this is particularly true with doctors that don’t often treat trans patients, or worse, that hold anti trans opinions (even if they keep those opinions private).
Yet, even when it is relevant, telling the doctor can lead to all sorts of othering and exclusion. Sometimes, it’s outright transphobia and misgendering. Sometimes, it’s being isolated from other patients, because the medical staff don’t know how to deal with you. Sometimes, it’s just medical curiosity, where the doctor just wants to ask all sorts of irrelevant questions out of medical/personal curiosity, because they don’t often deal with trans patients.
I live in a very trans inclusive country, with protective laws. I’m openly trans, and wear a trans flag dog tag, and a trans flag arm band. Yet one of the few situations where I won’t openly out myself unless I have no other choice, is when dealing with medical staff who don’t recognise those flags. And I do that, because the folk who don’t recognise the flags are the folk more likely to other me, more likely to be confused by me, and more likely to ensure that my interaction with them is as uncomfortable as possible. And that’s in a safe, accepting country. Imagine what it’s like for folk who live in places where transphobia is not only common, but sometimes legally mandated…
Which is to say, each and every trans person navigating healthcare has to decide for themselves how to walk this tightrope. And general advice of “you should tell them” suggests you’re not familiar with the lived realities of trans folk, despite working in a hospital
The moment I told my psychiatrist I am trans I was denied further care. Your advice is wrong and dangerous. See Ada’s comment for more detail on why.
Edit: For more context I live in Norway where this is highly illegal. I’ve complained to both the hospital and to higher authorities, but to no ones surprise there’s no response yet :)
Var det i bibelbeltet eller? Jeg spørre bare fordi jeg har ikke begynt med noe som helst enda og ville vite hvor vanskelig det kommer til å bli.
Kommentaren federer enda så svarer her på lemmy kontoen min i stedet. Nei var i en liten by i nordland, på vop. Det beste du kan gjøre er å flytte til oslo og komme deg inn på HKS om du er 30 el yngre. Du må bo i oslo for å få behandling der. Alternativene er riksen (som suger, de er onde, det tar veldig lang tid, og kan hende de bare sender deg hjem for å “ikke være trans nok”), eller imago (dyrt og kun over nett). Du kan forsåvidt også begynne med hormoner på egenhånd som jeg gjør. Vi har en lemmy community med lenker og ressurser, men den faktiske aktive communitien er på matrixen om du vil gjøre DIY. Det finnes noen leger som skriver ut hormoner, men da må man være heldig eller finne gjennom andre trans folk.
Om du er transmask er det også mulig å få tak i hormoner gjennom de som bruker steroider og sånt. Det er samme greierne.Ah, ser ut som du er transfem <3Legen min gav meg ikke store problemer fordi jeg er trans, han bare hjalp meg ikke forbi simple blodprøver. VOP var problemet for meg, og siden jeg var i en liten by hadde jeg ikke noen andre behandlere å gå til. De er redd for at det at du er trans skal være svært forstyrrende og gjøre det vanskelig å vite hva som er at du er trans og hva som er andre problemer. De var også redde for at hormoner (jeg tar ikke en gang blokker) skulle påvirke adhd medisin som er latterlig. Mange leger er nok også litt redde for hvordan det at du er trans påvirker andre ting fordi de ikke har kompetanse om det og fordi de ikke har tiden / ikke orker å sette seg inn i det. Du kan spørre folk på trans norge discorden eller transnord redditen om forslag til leger og frisører og sånt.
Håper jeg har svart på spørsmålet ditt <3
Det faktisk hjelper ganske mye, takk! Det er en senter som spesialiserer i kjønnsinkongruens i byen der Æ bor men det er kun til folk som er mye yngre enn mæ. Så det ser ut at det må enten skje via Riks eller en annen lit mer uoffisiell måte. vet du hvor ulovlig det er å importere pillene? Er det sånn at pakken blir stoppet og ikke levert eller blir det noe straff? Æ er ikke helt klar over hva loven sier om det.
Eneste som ikke er lov er testosteron og sånt for transmaske :( Østrogen, blokkere, og progesteron er ikke ulovlig (sånn som jeg forstår det iaf) men er ikke lov å selge.
Ja om det du kjøper blir tatt i tollen (som skjer ofte desverre), så tar de det, men så lenge du ikke svarer på noe så får du ikke noe problemer. Kan hende de sender brev og spør om du har resept og sånt, og da svarer man ikke altså. De fleste selgere har 1 gratis omsending om ting blir tatt, men etter det så må man kjøpe på nytt. Sjekk at det de sender forkledes som noe annet, det er ganske viktig for at ting ofte skal komme gjennom. Kalles gjerne stealth.
Personlig har ca 50%-70% kommet gjennom?
Om du skal kjøre DIY anbefaler jeg at du leser grunndig og nøye gjennom guider og om stoffene etc. Kort fortalt er det tryggeste å ta kun østrogen gjennom injeksjoner. De andre metodene krever som regel at du også tar en hormon blokker som over tid ikke er optimale for helsen din. De er ikke super dårlige i de dosene vi tar for HRT men om du kan unngå dem er det best. Jeg anbefaler ikke piller. Det er den verste måten å ta østrogen på. Om sprøyter høres skummelt ut (det er skummelt til å starte med men er egentlig veldig chill!) så kan du prøve spray eller gelé i stedet! Det fungerer veldig bra, men man må ta flere ganger per dag da i stedet for 1 gang per uke som med injeksjon.
Jeg anbefaler uansett da at du ber om å bli referert til riksen, selv om du bestemmer deg for å gjøre ting på egenhånd. De har lange ventelister, men om du får kjønnsinkongruensdiagnose av dem får du statsstøtte på diverse greier som hårfjerning, kirurgi, stemmetrening, osv.
Takk for det! Ja selvfølgelig er det best å gjør det gjennom riksen. Og Æ mener at det blir ganske greit på utredningstimer. Æ vet hva de leter etter. Æ er ganske kjent med icd10.
Men det er iallfall godt å vite at det finnes andre muligheter.
A few things.
Firstly, OP specifically said “Ideally without disclosing I’m trans”. Your whole comment was unnecessary first off from the outset.
Secondly, you have grossly overstated medical necessity here. Hormonally trans women who have been on HRT are functionally much closer to cis women than cis men. Trans status is rarely relevant to any medical treatment that isn’t specifically about reproductive organs.
Thirdly, trans status is a matter of life or death in the vast majority of the world. Medical necessity, even if it were as significant as you’ve tried to portray it as, means nothing if you get arrested or killed.
What are some examples of the biological implications and risk factors? As far as I can tell the only one I can think of (and the only one my doctors told me to disclose) is that I have a prostate, but risks of prostate cancer are very low when estrogen dominant.
Either way, assigned sex is often arbitrary and a can be a poor indicator of the medical situation, e.g. 20% of intersex individuals are trans and may or may not have typical anatomy of their assigned sex. So communicating you’re a trans woman gets misunderstood as “I’m male”, which is not the correct conclusion.
I should also state I obviously disclose my trans status to doctors who are providing care like HRT, or who need to know for other reasons (e.g. a gyno who would perform a prostate exam through the vaginal canal).
But my question is for contexts where it’s not appropriate or necessary to disclose trans status, such as walk-in clinics or ER visits.
I assume you are cis from your comment, but you should know it’s not just the prejudice and mistreatment that motivates not disclosing trans status (whether overt bigotry, or other forms of discrimination like “trans broken arm syndrome”). When you tell someone you are trans, it immediately undoes your gender in their eyes. It can feel dehumanizing, and it also comes with a lot of bad assumptions (e.g. that biologically I’m not different from other men, but also that I must be like a man in other ways, too).
For that reason I find it’s actually better to just disclose necessary information without framing it as being transgender - I disclosed that I was born without a uterus, and I disclosed the hormones I take and in what amounts, etc. which is what they need to know.
EDIT: I should mention, I’ve responded to a similar comment in the past, I’ll throw that inline here for convenience:
click here to expand my prior response
No worries!! It’s true that sometimes there are medically relevant differences, though I don’t think anything was relevant in this instance. Also, my trans status is was in their medical file, and they saw I was on estrogen and could have read that I have gender dysphoria and have medically transitioned. I just think the ER staff didn’t read my file closely, and operated on the assumption I was cis. If I thought being trans could be relevant, I would certainly disclose that, though.
Separately, you should know trans women tend to have brains that function more like cis women’s brains (and become even more like cis women’s brains once on estrogen), so the way drugs interact with my brain would probably be more like a woman’s brain would react than a cis man’s brain, for example.
It’s a similar story with my body - assuming I’m 100% biologically male is the wrong take-away, my body is hormonally female for example. A lot of sex differences are mediated through sex hormone levels (and resultant body composition differences) - but in both of those cases I’m more like cis women than cis men. And this matches my experiences, drugs absolutely absorb, metabolize, and feel different since I have medically transitioned.
Also, my body was different from a cis man’s from birth in other ways, for example I did not go through typical male puberty and I couldn’t grow a beard until my mid 20s. My guess is that I might have mild androgen insensitivity syndrome, which is a common genetic condition in trans women.
Obvious other differences between the sexes with regards to drugs is more about concerns about possibly impacting a fetus in women (hence the unnecessary pregnancy questions in my case), and differences in weight / stature and thus dose. But they were able to get relevant information to make the right decisions (they didn’t give me anything but a single dose of toradol).
Disclosing I am trans in medical contexts is mostly relevant for screening prostate cancer (which is at a much lower risk in trans women on estrogen, not only is estrogen actually a treatment for prostate cancer but male levels of testosterone, one of the reasons prostate cancers develop, are absent), and there is not much else relevant to providers. (That’s actually the only time my doctors indicated I need to disclose that I’m trans, to ensure I get prostate screenings.)
All that said, if you have some information about other instances where those differences matter or situations you think it would be really important to disclose that I am trans, I’m all ears!
EDIT2: another way trans status might impact health is for directing them for certain kinds of care that impact the community, such as testing for HIV, connecting with drug abuse resources, etc. - but that’s rather generic and less of the kind of “biological implications” you mentioned, but it’s an angle I hadn’t thought of before (if we were thinking about policy choices this would be something to consider, but in terms of what I as a trans woman should do, it feels less relevant).
What are some examples of the biological implications and risk factors?
Nursing student here - probably a solid half of the disease processes we study have “male/female sex” listed as a risk factor. A good chunk of lab values have different ranges for male vs female.
That said, I have no idea if those are intrinsic to the sex, or to the hormone levels, so HRT might completely negate or flip those differences.
I’d run this by your HRT doc. They’d have the best understanding on what your transition is or isn’t doing on a physiological level and which other docs would be able to provide better care if they know you’re trans.
Generally it’s best not to hide things from your doc, but if revealing that info is being treated as “I’m male” then that’s not doing you any favors, since your physiology is not that of a male. And again pointing to the HRT doc, they’d be able to help you articulate that distinction to other docs.
A good chunk of lab values have different ranges for male vs female.
You’ve actually hit on a major reason why disclosing isn’t as simple as you think it is.
Sure, a good chunk of values have different ranges for male vs female, but the normal ranges for cis folk and trans folk are not the same.
Hormones are the obvious example, but there are large parts of the body that respond to the endocrine profile that we have after hormone replacement. Heart attack symptoms, body fat percentages, resting heart rate, blood oxygen levels, iron levels etc, are all shaped by our hormone profile, not the hormone profiles of cis folk.
That said, I have no idea if those are intrinsic to the sex, or to the hormone levels, so HRT might completely negate or flip those differences.
It entirely depends on the specific medical issue, but in general, it’s the latter more often than the former.
I’d run this by your HRT doc.
It’s not always that simple. On top of the fact that it’s not realistic to see the HRT doc every time you have an unrelated medical issue, the other aspect is, as you’re probably aware, sometimes, the patient knows more about their health care needs than the treating doctor, because we need to become experts in a way that a GP does not. If your doctor isn’t a specialist in trans care, they’re just as likely to give you conservative, incorrect information that was drafted in a time when trans health care even less understood than it is now.
As you’re a nursing student, I want to give you some advice. When you are dealing with a patient that isn’t “new” to their situation, whether it’s trans health care, or long term illness etc, you need to allow for the fact that the patient likely has a lot of lived expertise in dealing with their situation, and broad, general advice is rarely going to be useful to them.
Not the first time you’ve schooled me - I love seeing your posts!
Thank you, and keep the insight coming. Nursing school doesn’t cover transgender care hardly at all, so a good chunk of my education so far on that topic has come from people like you!
Can I recommend giving this a read? It’s a great resource for getting a decent understanding of some trans stuff. Covers a lot of what we feel and go through, and also the effects of hormones and such. There’s a chapter on intersex conditions also. Lots of good stuff!
Added to my nursing bookmarks. I won’t have time to do a deep dive on anytihng other than coursework for the next few months, but that looks like a great resource! Thank you!
Knowing biology, I’m sure it’s complicated and any generalization will be false. For example, there might be genetic conditions that derive from having two X chromosomes that we could argue are intrinsic to the sex (or more accurately, intrinsic to that karyotype), but for the most part my understanding is that differences relevant to lab ranges are mostly mediated by hormones, so I use female ranges.
Either way, my PCP seemed to indicate I shouldn’t disclose trans status but that the one exception was that I eventually need to find someone for prostate exams once I hit that age (if I hit that age, I guess). The endo that prescribes my HRT has never mentioned whether I should disclose or when to.
I should say, even when my medical chart was shared across hospital systems and my gender dysphoria was listed in my chart, the ER doctors didn’t seem to do uptake or change the way they treated me, even when I walked through my HRT and explained I couldn’t be pregnant. They still thought I was a cis woman and asked if I could be pregnant - I think people mostly just operate based on what they see, and it’s a shock when you say you are trans. It creates an extreme chilling effect sometimes, people stop meeting your eyes, or even interacting (sometimes interacting through a third party instead, like a cis family member). I’ve even talked to a neurologist through the details of my vaginoplasty and he didn’t seem to do uptake that I was trans. Unless I say the words, they just won’t put the dots together. (Meanwhile a trans woman at Sephora’s will clock me from across the store.)
Sounds like you’ve already had the conversation I was encouraging if your PCP said that.
Hormones are pretty wild. The more I study them the more I understand that what I do know is barely a scratch on the tip of the iceberg, so I’d caution against making an assumption one way or another without bouncing it off a doc who specializes in that stuff.
I would guess you’re correct about the ranges, but my confidence in that guess is fairly low due to how insanely powerful hormones are.
I think people mostly just operate based on what they see
Oh 100%. I’ve been a surgical tech for about a decade, and have seen how people get tunnel-visioned. That’s actually one of the reasons I want to switch to nursing, since I’ve caught myself kind of flying on autopilot, and then when some case deviates from the norm, I still do things like open the all the usual supplies, some of which may not be needed this time, so it’s just waste. It’s time to step out of my comfort zone. Anyway, nurses and docs do the same shit after their duties become routinized for too long.
It creates an extreme chilling effect sometimes, people stop meeting your eyes, or even interacting (sometimes interacting through a third party instead, like a cis family member).
That is fucked up. I don’t know where you’re getting care, but your team absolutely knows better. Even if you’re that rare break from their routine… and in all fairness, you probably are - in that decade I’ve been a tech, I’ve only ever had like three patients I’ve known were trans. But like Ada mentioned, one of the best sources of info in those cases are the patients themselves. They should be treating you the same as any other patient, both medically and socially. Some curiosity is expected - your team should want to get to know you, but standoffish shit like you described is a red flag that merits correction. Don’t be afraid to call that shit out in things like patient surveys if you have the energy to fight in that battle - they need some better training at bare minimum.
The medical system lost its privilege to know everything about me at all times long ago. It’s positively lousy with conservative quacks, who not only lose all sense of professionalism when it comes to gender minorities but downplay cis womens’ medical issues too.
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Do you understand this is a global problem?
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how is it vital medical information? what difference does it make?
Just another cis guy speaking confidently over minorities
sure, but the real sin is being confidently wrong, lol
there seems to be real confusion, the main misunderstanding being that trans people really are their assigned sex, it betrays a kind of persistent essentialist thinking
it’s a complicated topic, so I prefer to just invite that nuance - what are the differences? If they’re right and I’m wrong, I’m sure that can be demonstrated - the worst case for me is that I learn something and grow.
These conversations are especially absurd given the fact that women weren’t even included in clinical trials until the 90s, and for the most part medicine still doesn’t even differentiate cis women, let alone intersex and trans people.
What it feels like is like a line is being crossed with cis people when I am a woman in a medical context. They were maybe willing to tolerate I am a woman socially, but the idea that I’m a woman “biologically” is like a third rail somehow, it’s dangerous and against truth, etc.
Consistently I’m told it’s important to disclose being trans for medical reasons, but I have yet to hear why, I never get an explaination that makes sense.
My doctors aren’t even telling me this. Instead I think it’s a kind of acceptable and anxious expression of latent transphobia, a desire to maintain a boundary between the social gender which has been expanded and made open to trans possibilities, and the “biological reality” which must remain fixed.
This is the same anxiety that lead universities to stop karyotype testing as an exercise for students, because so many find out they are intersex who perviously thought they were “normal”. There is incredible anxiety around sex and gender and a desire to see things a certain way, and trans and intersex people complicate that way of seeing.
Telling trans people that disclosing their trans status in medical contexts on the surface seems defensible, but it seems to me that it may be more motivated by a desire to reduce trans people to their assigned sex in medical contexts, which in the end is less about good medicine and more about cis-sexist norms.
https://piefed.blahaj.zone/post/236212#comment_1057480
Edit: Besides, it’s nuanced. Disclose if necessary. Don’t disclose otherwise. It can cause us a lot of harm as others have gone into detail on to always disclose that we are trans. You don’t know what you are talking about.
Edit: What I have to do in one of those countries you blindly assume is a-okay with trans people is I have to specifically look for doctors and medical professionals that are known for not mistreating queer or trans people. This is stuff we talk about and share with each other all the time. I’m not an isolated case.
absolutely, I have to find everything through the trans community - what dentist to see, my hairdresser, etc. Doctors are some of the most important to be vetted by the trans community first.
For an ongoing relationship with a primary care doctor or a specialist for a new health problem that my GP has referred me out for, sure. For something like the dentist or an urgent care doctor because I have an ear infection? Absolutely not, I’m not trying to deal with trans broken arm syndrome.
If I have concerns about medication interactions I’ll ask the pharmacist at my local LGBT health center. The odds of there being a medication only cis men can take (for reasons other than fetal health) or that the dosage is going to be drastically different because of my sex rather than my hormonal profile, medications, and weight is vanishingly small.
If I have concerns about medication interactions I’ll ask the pharmacist at my local LGBT health center. The odds of there being a medication only cis men can take (for reasons other than fetal health) or that the dosage is going to be drastically different because of my sex rather than my hormonal profile, medications, and weight is vanishingly small.
I assume by “cis men” you mean “biologically male” (roughly including trans women?), and while this is an idea that hasn’t been revised much in the hospitals, that idea is a bit broken and scientists have moved on from the idea of “biologically male/female”, either way - what I was wondering is what even is an example of such a medication? I don’t know of any medication that would be so different for men vs. women that a trans woman would need to be treated differently than cis women.
Generally the drugs that metabolize differently (or are dosed differently) between sexes (broadly speaking) are going to be the same whether you are a cis or trans woman (assuming the trans woman is on estrogen), because estrogen seems to mediate a lot of those differences.
Can you think of an example? I don’t know of any!
I wrote cis men because I’m a trans man and was talking more about a hypothetical medication that would harm me if the doctor thought I was a cis man and didn’t out myself. But yeah, I’ve never been able to get an answer from anyone on how urgent care is going to kill me if I don’t tell the doctor I’m trans before I get antibiotics 🤷♂️
🤦♀️ sorry about that mixup, I hate it when I make bad assumptions like that 😬 also, glad you’re here!
and yeah, I have no clue either … I’m open to being wrong, but my doctors aren’t telling me I need to disclose I am trans. To the contrary they seem to indicate I shouldn’t, and were clear the one exception was to get prostate exams past a certain age, a concern that is suspicious, and may be a bit misinformed, considering it is based on the assumption of risks from male levels of androgens. I have a relative with prostate cancer currently taking medication to block androgens to treat the cancer, for example …
Though I am in the U.S. so my doctors might be more concerned about my disclosure given the context. I was also at the time getting care in one of the worst anti-trans states.
Yeah. The best way to lower risk of prostate cancer is to lower testosterone levels. And the best way to stop it growing if you do develop it, is to lower testosterone levels, and add estrogen. And they rarely, if ever choose surgical intervention when it comes to prostate cancer. So, despite being at the age where a cis man would have to start thinking about this, it’s not something I plan on investigating, given that I’ve got a reduced risk profile, and I’m already on the same medication they use as treatment…
right!? I find it so strange they are treating my prostate like it’s in a cis man’s body … one guess is maybe the time before transition adds risk because there was exposure to male levels of androgens? But then … I’m already on the treatment for prostate cancer … something just doesn’t make sense here and it feels like blind policy being implemented on the assumption that I’m “male”, exactly the kind of mistaken view I don’t want to perpetuate by disclosing I’m trans.
No worries, this is literally the transfem community!
And yeah, I get all the relevant exams that my GP (who I’m out to) thinks I should get, I disclose what medications I’m on, beyond that it’s my discretion because it’s not their business.
hypothetical medication that would harm me if the doctor thought I was a cis man and didn’t out myself
Not that I’m accusing you of anything, but this is a hypothetical that I hear a lot from transphobes (ie, "would you take the medication only for “biological” men / women despite being a trans woman / man? If so, ha ha! You admit to being your AGAB really. If not, ha ha! You die).
Other than questions of what anatomy is physically present, I’ve never heard of (and sincerely doubt the existence of) any case where birth sex is relevant.
Yeah, I say hypothetical medication because as far as I can tell it remains that. Medicine is complicated enough that I’m not willing to rule it out as inherently impossible, but if such a thing exists I doubt we even know about it, given the sorry state of medication trials with regards to treating cis men as the default human.
While its true that there can be implications for the efficacy and side effects of medication if you’re doing hrt. You can also check for those interactions before you get your prescription or ask someone who you know to be safe. It’s going to potentially be safer than being denied care all together. a lot of places are extremely transphobic if not in policy then in the personal prejudice of people generally.
could you kindly share some examples? How would this differ from just … being your gender, i.e. the way estrogen works in the body will impacy how medications are metabolized, but the end result is that the medication works similarly as in cis female bodies … is this what you mean?
I don’t know of any interactions with HRT generally and would like to learn…
Finding new doctor is the worse experience every.
Here in public health your town gets a few of them, and you can only change between those.
The procedure takes days, more days to take new appointments and then to suffer the issues again.
That is really shit. You get no spoons to even start again.
Assuming you’re not a trans woman, nobody asked you. Maybe don’t go blundering into minefields.
This is a vibrant thread that sparked informative discussion about trans people’s interactions with healthcare. None of this would have happened without someone blundering in here and saying something uninformed.
Anyone is welcome to participate in this community, including cis people.
yeah, but I wasn’t asking for cis perspectives on this, and it feels more like the thread has been hijacked and taken a direction I wasn’t intending. It’s making me think having a community where cis voices are not allowed might be a good idea … To be honest, this isn’t the first time this has happened either.
Usually just say something like I wasn’t born with them because of genetics. I mean technically true. Although not sure if it would work in states that are really anti trans. But using the nurse just usually continues like it’s nothing. But fyi my medical practice isn’t really transphobic so just fyi.
I don’t pass so “never lol” usually works for me.
lol, if you don’t pass they don’t ask you the question, silly 😝
You’d be shocked, but it does happen sometimes (nurses, through force of habit).
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aw, I didn’t get to see what you wrote :-(
Woops, sorry! I got immediately multiply downvoted 100%, I haven’t posted in this community before so not familiar with the culture, and even though I thought my response was relevant, it didn’t look like the community was interested in such an opinion, so I withdrew my post. I said something like that unless I am literally there do get tested for a suspected pregnancy, I would tell them it’s none of their business, or more politely, “given the current political climate, I do not answer questions like these”. Thanks for checking up on me!
This community is hosted on blahaj, an instance that disables downvotes. None of us locals have the option to downvote, nor can we see downvotes. Apparently other instances can downvote and those do federate to instances that enable it. So if you’re being downvoted, its because people from other instances disagree with your statements. Downvotes are not a indication of this community’s opinions. We can only disagree through replies.
I appreciate you restating your comment. We’re happy to hear from you!
this is helpful context, thanks for raising awareness 😊
oh, huh - yeah, it is pretty scary that women are asked about their periods - esp. the way that information can be used in an increasingly political campaign to criminalize women and surveil pregnancies. Only makes it worse that it’s a question that might out me.
Still, I get that the doctor needs to know if I am pregnant or could be pregnant and not know it.
Agreed! That’s why I much prefer the “Is there any possible way you could be pregnant right now?” phrasing. Which is straight to the point of “we are about to operate on your abdominal section that could cause fetal loss if we are not aware of it, assuming you care about that sort of thing.” But if you are getting the period question, then it’s just a nurse checking off a box on an insurance checklist when you are there for an ear infection, and 100% of the time it is not relevant then.
it’s interesting because in the ER I was asked “is it possible you could be pregnant” and I simply said no, and that was easier than trying to explain why I don’t have periods. I even had to correct a nurse who assumed I had a hysterectomy, I had to re-iterate that I was born without a uterus.
