The Check Up By Dr Lucy Dobson, She/Her, Anglesea Medical
GENDER DIVERSITY Transgender and gender-diverse health is a rapidly expanding area of general practice in Australia. For many years there have been people identifying as a gender that was not ‘assigned’ to them at birth. comfortable with who they are and not what others expect.
However, social stigma and discrimination has oppressed their ability to express themselves without recrimination.
It is important to establish what pronouns a person chooses to use, these include she/her, he/him, they/them. If you misgender someone with use of incorrect pronouns, politely apologise and correct yourself.
Gender identity lies on a spectrum A transgender person is someone who identifies as the opposite gender to the sex they were born at birth. A non-binary person identifies as neither male nor female, they lie somewhere along the ‘binary’ spectrum. Gender identity is different from sexuality, and again the latter lies on a spectrum. Sexuality is a person’s attraction to another gender and is personal preference. It cannot be assumed to be based on gender identity.
medical and surgical transition. There are many elements to gender expression and taking hormones or having genderreassignment surgery is by no means the only or ‘complete’ way to do so, which is often the belief of the general public.
Supporting transition
GPs are in a privileged position to support people who experience ‘gender dysphoria’, an intense dislike or incongruence in their gender assigned at birth.
Social transition, ‘coming out’ is often the most important and one of the more difficult parts of transition as it is influenced by the expectations of family, friends and society about what it means to be a male or female, brother, sister, daughter, son, mum or dad.
We can do this by supporting social,
To the person, it is about being
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Happiness comes from being truthful to one’s self. The best thing you can do to support a transgender or gender diverse person is to let them be who they want to be!
Who to contact If you or anyone you know is experiencing gender dysphoria, going through transition or know someone who is, and you are looking for support, speak to your local GP or explore the following resources. GASP Geelong: gaspgeelong.org.au/about Transgender Victoria: tgv.org.au Transcend Australia: transcendaus.org/ Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14
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