Trans Broken Arm Syndrome
Trans broken arm syndrome, known also simply as trans broken arm, is a term used within the transgender community to describe a perceived phenomenon whereby doctors will seemingly ascribe any ailment or injury, however seemingly unrelated, to the patient's trans status.[1]
Origin[edit]
The term originated in the United Kingdom on the message boards of Queer Youth Network as a rant by the Trans Officer, Jo McKillop (archive since deleted). McKillop had actually broken their arm in a bicycle crash, with the fracture being blamed on Hormone replacement therapy by the treating physician. The term didn't reach mainstream prominence until journalist Naith Payton, a friend of McKillop's, wrote about it for Pink News in 2015,[1] spurring the hashtag #TransHealthFail.[2] The phenomenon has since been described in the academic literature,[3] and is expected to be discussed at greater length in the upcoming book, Understanding Trans Health.[4]
Effects on Healthcare[edit]
The phenomenon itself has led to numerous reports of physicians referring patients to transgender specialists for unrelated maladies on the basis that the patient is transgender.[5][6] Patients have described doctors spending so long attempting to document the patient's transition history that they deplete the time available to conduct a thorough analysis of the presenting complaint. This has led to patients taking the calculated risk of refusing to disclose their trans status and related history to doctors on the basis that, to paraphrase: "the 1% chance of a false negative (of trans status being responsible) is outweighed by the 99% chance of a false positive".[1]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Payton, Naith (9 July 2015). "Feature: The dangers of trans broken arm syndrome". Pink News. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
- ↑ "#transhealthfail". Twitter.com. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
- ↑ Knutson, Douglas; Koch, Julie M.; Arthur, Tori; Mitchell, T. Andrew; Martyr, Meredith A. (2016). ""Trans broken arm": Health care stories from transgender people in rural areas". Journal of Research on Women and Gender. 7: 30–46. ISSN 2375-0944.
- ↑ "Understanding Trans Health Discourse: Power and Possibility". Poly Press. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
- ↑ O'Hara, Mary Emily (6 August 2015). "'Trans Broken Arm Syndrome' and the way our healthcare system fails trans people". DailyDot.com. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
- ↑ Redden, Molly (2 March 2017). "How defunding Planned Parenthood could wipe out transgender healthcare". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
This article "Trans Broken Arm Syndrome" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Trans Broken Arm Syndrome. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
