Danetre Hospital 2024-03-04 Person 0 5 0

I am a trans man and I recently spoke with [name removed] [name removed] about my plans regarding top surgery, as I have been on testosterone for a year and a half, and I believe that he was extremely condescending and ignorant towards me. I told him that testosterone has helped with my dysphoria, as my voice has dropped and I am growing facial hair, and his response was shock that I would still want to get surgery, as he took this as my dysphoria magically disappearing the second I started testosterone. I explained that I still have debilitating chest dysphoria that makes me not be able to shower without discomfort, or sometimes even go outside, and his response was "you don't have to get top surgery just because other trans men do it," implying that getting top surgery is some sort of trend and people only do it to "fit" the narrative of being trans, which is incredibly insensitive, offensive and ignorant. It is good to explain that not every trans person wants to get surgery; however, he told me this in an extremely condescending manner after I already told him that my chest dysphoria is a burden on my life. I told him that it has been better since starting testosterone also because people do not misgender me as much, and his response was to question why I would want to get top surgery then. This clearly shows that he does not understand how dysphoria works at all, and possibly does not think it even exists, as he believes that people only get surgery to be seen as the gender they want by other people, and not because of how they see and feel about themselves. I, for one, do not want to get top surgery so that people view me as a man, I want to get it so that I can look in the mirror and finally be happy at what I see. It is obviously important to inform patients about possible negative effects of surgery, however it seemed as though [name removed] [name removed] was, instead of informing me, talking me out of what he believed to be the biggest mistake a person could make in their life. I have had him a few times and every time his tone has been condescending and not understanding, and every time I dread speaking with him.

Either take more care to educate the workers that are meant to help transgender people, or hire people that actually care about us and understand what we're going through. It is extremely important to educate patients about all of the possible impacts that a surgery can have; however, treating said surgery like it is the worst life decision someone could make is extremely dangerous, ignorant, and offensive. I truly hope that Dr [name removed] has not scared vulnerable transgender people out of getting a surgery that could possibly greatly improve their life. It is important to handle these situations with care and understanding, and not ignorance and judgement; and to speak of these surgeries as huge life decisions that could be possibly dangerous, yes, but also decisions that could make life a lot, lot better.