South Africa - Transgender patients sidelined by attitudes and labelling

[Felix]

SAMJ: South African Medical Journal
Print version ISSN 0256-9574
SAMJ, S. Afr. med. j. vol.101 no.2 Cape Town Feb. 2011
http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0256-95742011000200007&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en

In spite of an enlightened constitution and enabling legislation, South Africa's small transgender population continues to battle medical prejudice and ignorance in addition to huge societal pressure to conform to socially constructed sexual stereotypes. An Izindaba investigation showed that transgender people need precise information and deep pockets to access hormone treatment and/or gender-reassignment surgery, be it in the public or private sector.

[AbraCadabra]

People I actually find pretty accepting - being white/Caucasian and being embraced (nothing short of!) by black females, much more so then by white females.

The system is a mess in my knowing. Only ONE "accredited" gatekeeper for SBAH (Pretoria) a gay chauvinist in my experience, and a horse doctor also my very experience as head of department gynaecology doing the 2nd op – colovaginoplasty ONLY, NOT NEGOTIABLE. They are NOT at all experienced in 'inversion protocol' in my knowing... in Pretoria.

Their results are VERY iffy from an optical point of view - and take AGES to be finalized, due to 3 required operations (1. penectomy, orchiectomy, 2. colovaginoplasty -ONLY-!, 3. clitoro- & labiaplasty) plus endless delays due to state hospital underfundung (actually more like over-wasting...)

If ANYONE can afford to leave to country for their SRS - THEY WILL DO SO.

A VERY depressing situation - THE SYSTEM - not so much actual society in my experience.

Axélle
PS: the article most conveniently seems to side-step the -system- problem...
Groot Schuur Hospital can only do 3 GRS patience a year... so much for "sucess rate"... the waiting list is VERY long about 3 YEARS...

[Felix]

Wow. Axelle that sounds more difficult even than the article made clear. Thank you for the input.

[Rain Dog]

Their results are VERY iffy from an optical point of view - and take AGES to be finalized, due to 3 required operations (1. penectomy, orchiectomy, 2. colovaginoplasty -ONLY-!, 3. clitoro- & labiaplasty) plus endless delays due to state hospital underfundung (actually more like over-wasting...)

That truly sounds like creating a "casserole of nonsense", to quote a somewhat maligned TV show. I would think there are significant risks involved in colon surgery that could be avoided. And with a penectomy, there would be no real clitoris. This sounds more like abuse than medicine, what happened to 'do no harm'?

[AbraCadabra]

That truly sounds like creating a "casserole of nonsense", to quote a somewhat maligned TV show. I would think there are significant risks involved in colon surgery that could be avoided. And with a penectomy, there would be no real clitoris. This sounds more like abuse than medicine, what happened to 'do no harm'?

As for the 'do not harm' i.e. Hippocratic Oath, I learned it 'DOES NOT APPLY ANYMORE' at least for SA doctors, - so one more reason to be treated as an 'object' rather then a patient - as I experienced with myself and a tg friend.

The article is from a medical journal, therefore I'd also expect they'd not open a 'can of worms' when it comes to their own profession...

Axélle