HE A LTH C A R E F O R A L L
BY TED GREGORY
Consider the people a patient interacts with during a visit to the doctor’s office or the hospital. If every single one of those people questions a fundamental element of who the patient is, it becomes easy to see how a traditional healthcare
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fter earning his medical degree at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Michael Brownstein, SB’62, MD’66, headed to Los Angeles for a surgical internship. He decided to focus his training on plastic surgery, with the goal of becoming a board-certified plastic surgeon. “I dreamed about becoming a plastic surgeon to the stars,” Brownstein, now retired, said from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona. “That was what I was determined to do. No matter where I went for additional training, I was coming back to Beverly Hills to open a practice.” Following his general surgery residency at the University of New Mexico, Brownstein completed a plastic surgery residency at the University of California, San Francisco. That’s where he was exposed to — and moved by — the plight of transgender patients and where his dream of becoming Hollywood’s premier cosmetic surgeon was replaced by a new aspiration. Brownstein instead became a pioneer in genderaffirming surgery in the late 1970s, perhaps the first in the U.S. to perform “top surgery” — removal of the breasts and chest reconstruction — on a patient
system complicates and
‘We’ve made it known that we are present.’
exacerbates transgender
A half century after Brownstein earned his medical degree at the University of Chicago, Christian Carrier, MS1, came out as gay during the summer after his high school graduation in Naperville, Illinois. He was tentative about his involvement in advocacy until his junior year as a biology major at Miami University in Ohio. That’s when he decided to pursue a minor in women’s, gender and sexuality studies, which made him more aware of the importance of advocacy and its role in fields like medicine. During some medical school interviews, he recalled feeling as if he were being interrogated about his sexuality, until he came to Pritzker. “UChicago stood out to me,” Carrier said. “Throughout the interview process, they were really good at demonstrating diversity, emphasizing social determinants of health, and emphasizing community service and inclusion as well.” The faculty and students he spoke with seemed genuinely interested in getting to know him and learning about his personal journey to medicine, he said. “So, when it came down to the decision, I felt like UChicago was someplace where I would be included, where I could be myself and pursue the passions I had from Miami and continue them.”
individuals’ health issues.
Michael Brownstein, SB’62, MD’66, who retired 10 years ago, was a pioneer in gender-affirming surgery.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL BROWNSTEIN, MD
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transitioning from female to male. The patient was pleased, and more patients followed. Therapists and others working with LGBTQ+ patients began referring transgender patients to him. His reputation and practice grew rapidly. But the surgical community was less than supportive. “The reaction from the patients was totally positive,” Brownstein said. “The reaction in the medical community — at least from my surgical colleagues — was very negative. It was an undercurrent of, ‘How can you work with these patients? What’s happened to your practice that you have a need to do this type of surgery?’” “Now,” Brownstein added, “they’re all doing it.” More than four decades later, the growing awareness of the needs of LGBTQ+ patients — as well as LGBTQ+ faculty and students — is leading to more clinicians and centers providing specialized care; more emphasis on LGBTQ+ issues in medical school and the workplace; and greater involvement in advocacy and activism. The University of Chicago Medicine and the Pritzker School of Medicine are among the leaders in the national shift.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION