Trans men are people who were assigned female at birth and now identify and express their gender as male. They may use a variety of terms and pronouns to describe themselves and their gender identity.
The health care industry needs to make changes to ensure that trans men are treated equally with cisgender women. This includes including trans men in pregnancy and childbirth, as well as contraception and fertility treatments.
Gender-affirming surgery
Gender-affirming surgery can be a key part of transgender care, reducing the risk of medical complications from gender dysphoria and allowing people to be who they really are. There are many types of surgeries that can help with this, including breast augmentation (implants), facial feminisation, thyroid chondroplasty, and voice modification surgery.
Some genital reconstructive procedures are also performed by surgeons to enhance a person’s feminine features, such as clitoroplasty, penectomy or orchidectomy. Some men may also have a hysterectomy or oophorectomy, which can be used for oocyte storage and fertility preservation.
Gender-affirming surgery can help some people to change their bodies, but it’s important to know the risks and benefits before deciding whether to have these procedures. Patients should also consider how this will affect their mental health.
Health care
Health care can be challenging for many people, including trans men. They might have a difficult time finding doctors who understand their needs and treat them with respect.
They may be afraid to have physical examinations, which can lead to a delay in getting the care they need.
In addition, some providers don’t have the training or expertise to provide the kind of healthcare that trans men need, said Dr. Beth Cronin, an OB-GYN and LGBTQ health advocate.
Increasingly, physicians are learning how to care for trans patients, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. They need to learn about trans patients’ unique physiological and psychological needs, which can be different from those of their peers. That can take time and training, but it’s important to help make sure that every provider is comfortable with working with trans patients.
Sexual settings
Transgender men who undergo surgical transitions embody a different form of masculinity, which subverts the rigid boundaries of sexual dimorphism. This recoding of body parts and sexual acts also subverts the societal norms of female-to-male (female to male) relationships, which are gendered around physical genitals.
The recoding of sexual behavior can have implications for the healthcare community. For example, trans men may be a risk for HIV because they have condomless vaginal or anal sex with cisgender men and may not know the HIV status of their sexual partners.
Despite these risks, sexuality is an important experience for transgender men. However, there is little research on the experiences of transgender men related to their sexual orientation identity and behavior, HIV-related sexual risk, and sexual satisfaction.
Children
Despite a lack of research, trans men have distinct needs when it comes to fertility, conception, pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. They likely face erasure, stigma, and strongly gendered norms around reproductive care, and their needs are often different than the general population.
For many people, the decision to become a parent is an expression of empowerment. They see it as a way to be a positive force in the lives of others, and a positive role model for their children.
In the UK, a trans man gave birth to his son and wanted to be recorded as his ‘father’ on the child’s birth certificate, but birth registration authorities in England refused to do this. He fought for the change in court, and was eventually successful. This article discusses the case and argues that it has the potential to break conventionally heteronormative understandings of fatherhood.
Relationships
Trans men may experience a wide range of relationship challenges. They might not feel comfortable with sex with cisgender women or other men, they could be worried about STIs or have a hard time dating and getting pregnant.
Relationships can also be difficult because of stigma. Trans men often have experiences of transphobic rape, which can psychologically traumatize them and lead to health issues such as HIV infection.
Some gay men may reject transmen as partners because of a wider cis-centrism and a desire for bodies that have male-typical traits such as masculine anatomy including genitals. In addition, some gay men may have unacknowledged sexism or misogyny.