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[–]MarkTwainiac 41 insightful - 1 fun41 insightful - 0 fun42 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Actually, in the USA lots of pressure has been placed on gynecologists for many years now to provide care for both TIMs and TIFs, and to "educate themselves" about how how to do this.

I believe part of the reason for this is that most gynecologists nowadays are women - and women are seen as having a duty to take care of everyone, even those whose issues are clearly outside their practice area and training. Moreover, I believe that many TIMs insist on being seen by female gynecologists coz it's "validating" and arousing for them and gives them that extra special erotic thrill known as "gender euphoria," coz forcing female health providers who trained specifically to treat female patients exclusively to have to treat males - and deal with male genitals in an up close and personal way - is the ultimate male power and dominance play, and coz invading and marking off obstetrics-gynecology clinics and practices as territory that must accept and accommodate male patients is a major victory in the colonization project that is male transgenderism.

Significantly, no similar or correspending pressure is being placed on male urologists and proctologists to expand their areas of knowledge and their medical practices to be inclusive of and take care of the health care needs of TIMs and TIFs. [edit: I was trying to say that urologists and proctologists are not being pressured to "educate themselves" to provide additional medical services to TIMs and TIFs that are outside what they and other specialists in their fields normally do and were trained to do.]

From "Care of the transgender patient: the role of the gynecologist" in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, published January 1, 2014:

Male-to-female transsexuals sometimes prefer to see a gynecologist for their annual health care as this helps them to affirm their gender and also gives them the opportunity to share any gynecologic concerns such as recurrent neovaginal and urinary tract infections, problems with voiding, and pain with intercourse. Neovaginal prolapse as well as anatomic urinary tract dysfunction, while rare, does exist.Patients may initially seek the care of a gynecologist to address the problem and to determine the need for referral to a subspecialist. Additionally, some male to female patients prefer to have their annual breast examination with a gynecologist.

Transgender men sometimes seek gynecologic care as many of these patients do not fully transition with sex reassignment and do not have their pelvic organs removed and need routine screening such as Pap smears and bimanual pelvic examinations. In addition, some patients may receive their hormonal treatments and surveillance through reproductive endocrinology specialists who may prefer to refer patients to gynecologists in their practice for routine health management to facilitate good continuity of care.

For all the reasons above, gynecologists need to be familiar with the health care needs of these patients. Care should be rendered according to standard guidelines based on level-1 evidence for the general population, but then some alterations should be made with important considerations in mind including biological sex, surgical status, declared gender, and past or current use of hormonal therapy.

Additionally, gynecologists should be aware of the most commonly used hormonal therapies, which ones are given preoperatively and then postoperatively, and how they can be changed if there are metabolic concerns. Although trained endocrinologists usually make adjustments to regimens, providers caring for these patients should have general knowledge to help guide their management in other aspects of their care.

Gynecologists may play an important role in counseling (trans-identified male as well as female) patients about fertility or referring them to reproductive endocrinologists for care. The initial discussion may take place in the gynecologist's office. Feminizing and virilizing hormonal regimens have been shown to diminish fertility in patients. The significant challenge is that these discussions should take place prior to the initiation of hormonal therapy. If patients disclose that they are transgender during a routine office visit, they may require counseling regarding their transition options. During that initial discussion, options about fertility can also be addressed. Although there are no data on the rates of infertility among transsexual patients treated with hormones, data can be extrapolated from patients who have experienced damage to their gonads as a result of cancer treatments.

Male-to-female patients should be given (by gynecologists) the option of sperm preservation in sperm banks prior to initiating hormones. If patients have already initiated hormones, there are data that report eventual recuperation of sperm count after a hormone-free period and so, these patients can be given the option to stop hormonal therapy temporarily to bank their sperm.

There are also limited data on female-to-male preservation of fertility. These patients can consider oocyte or embryo cryopreservation prior to starting therapy, while those who have already initiated hormones have the option of interrupting their treatment to undergo ovarian stimulation with subsequent oocyte retrieval and freezing. Studies have shown that there has been some success in ovarian recovery after cessation of testosterone with subsequent successful pregnancies.

Lastly, gynecologists should be aware of the barriers that transpatients face with regards to accessing care as well as feeling comfortable once they have found a provider. Simple things can be done within the office setting to ensure that patients understand that they are in a safe space and that they will receive the same care as other patients. Most importantly, they should feel safe disclosing their gender identity as well as their sex preferences so that the provider may take care of them and identify all possible risk factors for disease. This can be accomplished with an open-minded approach to patient care, use of screening questions that do not discriminate against any individual or group, and demonstration of knowledge of the general principles of transgender health.

Note how the above is all about all the extra things that gynecologists must to do accommodate these patients because seeing a usually female gynecologist is what trans males and females prefer. Not coz it's what's medically best or even appropriate - it's coz it's what the trans patients prefer and want.

Note that there is no mention of the fact that the extra duties usually female gynecologists are now expected to take up to make trans males and females happy are not what they were trained for, are clearly outside their standard practice area, and probably would not be covered under their malpractice insurance policies.

Note as well that there is also no mention of how mostly female gynecologists feel about this, whether they have been consulted on this expansion of their duties, or whether female gynecologists should have the right to refuse to treat male patients and having to touch male genitals coz of the consent issues and coz that's clearly not what any gynecologist signed up to do. Many women go into gynecology to avoid having to deal with male patients, in fact. But now the thought leaders in their field are telling them tough shit, as a gynecologist it is your duty to treat a specific class of male patients who are very likely to be narcissistic sexual fetishists, misogynists and male supremacists with a host of mental health and anger problems. And who are likely to cry "bigot" and "hate" crime and to file human rights complaints and lawsuits if gynecologists or their staffs don't do what these male patients want, and if the gynecologists or their staffs perhaps commit a heinous offense like mentioning these patients' biological sex.

https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(13)00522-X/fulltext#secd20271189e613

[–][deleted] 30 insightful - 6 fun30 insightful - 5 fun31 insightful - 6 fun -  (2 children)

This is spot on analysis, thank you!

Yeah imagine you've spent twelve years plus, training in gynecology bc you have a passion for women's health, and then your professional journal telling you Welp, now you have to learn these surgeries that are done on males, relearn male endocrinology, and good god talk about sperm preservation?

Noted this is from 2014 too.

I can add that in my personal experience with TiM patients, they are super creepy. Always wanting to talk about their vaginas, look bruh we are here to talk about your banged up elbow and maybe a flu shot. No woman just sits there randomly talking about her vagina.

[–]MarkTwainiac 27 insightful - 5 fun27 insightful - 4 fun28 insightful - 5 fun -  (1 child)

I wrote a novel back in 2016 in which the protagonist is a longstanding ob-gyn in NYC whose women's health practice gets targeted first by TIM TRAs, then by TIFs. The TIMs demand that the ob-gyn accommodate their male health needs, and that she change her office decor, paperwork and staff so these men feel more "affirmed" and "validated" and "welcomed" for being the real women they claim they are. And of course, they demand she and her staff use their lingo, calling their penises and balls outie vaginas and ovaries, etc. Then the TIFs show up and demand that everything in the practice be made gender-neutral, that their vaginas be referred to as "front holes," and no mention be made of evil words like "mother" and "breasts" when the TIFs are pregnant, giving birth and feeding their infants... The upshot is that she gets publicly vilified as a transphobe and bigot and evil "TERF" and finally folds up her practice.

It actually turned out to be pretty funny, in a horrifying way, but of course it's unpublishable.

[–]grixit 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think it would make a great, and informative, graphic novel.