Sometimes the fact that someone is trans will be relevant to the care you give them, but at other times it won’t be. This section focuses on navigating conversations with trans people about their bodies and when it is (and isn’t) relevant to ask them about any transition related surgeries they might have had or hormone they might be taking.
It’s important to note that not all trans people will have had transition related surgery or be taking hormone replacement therapy. This can be influenced by a number of factors such as NHS waiting times, their relationship to their body, chronic illnesses and disabilities. Do not assume that a trans person does not experience dysphoria related to their body just because they present in a certain way or have not accessed certain aspects of transition-related care.
“I had to go through like the whole process of like, two nurses, a surgeon, and the surgeons assistant, all coming in and asking you the same questions on the day of the operation. But all completely respectful. I realized at the at the end of the day, I turned to my partner, and said, if you realized no one has said the word penis from, like, the time I turned up here, to the time of discharging. And we’ve had reasons to talk about that area of the body throughout the whole day, including how to look after and maintain a catheter, all sorts of things, descriptions of what the what actually occurred in the operation, all of these things. They had just been led by my language and what I wanted to say, because I didn’t say it, they didn’t say it’s just really impressed by that.”
from Trans Inclusive Healthcare? Trans people’s experiences accessing healthcare in the UK (2024)
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