Trans Health
This post from Questioning Transphobia came across my RSS reader today and I wanted to share it with you. From the post:
There’s no question that there’s very little empirical medical evidence available on the various specific health risks faced by trans women. And although these results are as depressing as they’re scary as they’re alarming – we’re at twice the risk of dying from heart disease or a stroke and eight times more likely to commit suicide – there’s no doubt in my mind that much, much more research in this area is needed urgently.
This makes me think about Cedar’s Cis Privilege Checklist
:
I expect that medical therapies offered to me have been the subject of rigorous medical studies & approval processes.
I expect that medical studies are being done to improve & approve treatments available for people with my conditions.
Because, as this study shows, neither of those points are true for trans men and women. I don’t know what the long-term effects of estrogen or testosterone blockers will be on my body, and very few people are particularly interested in finding out.
Themocracy
Right. I mean, HRT has been fairly well an accidental therapeutic use for us, right?
Otoh, I’m also skeptical about what kinds of agendas are behind medical studies on us – whether people who are in favour of reparative therapy are looking for ammunition to prevent us transitioning. That’s not an unreasonable fear, I think.
Not having that, that’s a cis privilege of a different kind. I mean, generally, we can’t trust that doctors will *want* to help us. Sure, given time we might find a decent GP and endo, but I’ve been hustled out of reception rooms and hospitals without treatment a few too many times to really trust that the medical profession is looking out for us.
I think that’s a good point concerning potential agendas behind studies. Unfortunately, I’d say it’s larger than just with trans issues, as the motivations for any medical study could be (and all to often are) to promote a specific goal…
But you’re right that trans people (and any socially maligned group) have it particularly rough when it’s not a given that “Do no harm” will apply to them.