Finding equitable health services and treatment providers who are aware of identity health issues is crucial for trans people. A system created to meet the needs of transgender individuals may present a number of difficulties, though.
Dr. A.J. Lowik, a postdoctoral fellow at UBC, describes the actual experience of fourteen trans people seeking reproductive health services in British Columbia in their fresh text, Trans People and the Choreography of Reproductive Healthcare: Dancing Outside the Lines. Dr. Lowik explores the obstacles that people encounter and the adaptive techniques they use in search of treatment that is qualified, safe, and affirming using dance as a analogy.
Dr. Lowik and I discussed their new text and how their work is influencing more gender-affirming, trans-inclusive health treatment for British Columbians.
Why did you decide to write this book, exactly?
This publication represents the pinnacle of my interest in sexual health and the integration of trans people into the field. That love started while I was working at an abortion clinic with a “women simply” work plan during my academic studies. That plan caused me a lot of uncertainty, not only because I had started to consider who I was as an nonbinary, transgender person, but also because it made me wonder how such an environment may provide care for transgender people. Since then, I’ve pursued graduate research to learn more about the reproduction, health, and treatment experiences of trans people. I’ve also been working to give reproductive healthcare providers evidence-based training so they can offer more trans-inclusive, gender-affirming attention.
Dr. A.J. Lowik, a doctoral fellow at the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity and the UBC Faculty of Medicine
What is the best way to sum up the book?
The book looks at how trans people interact with sexual health maintenance and how they move through environments that weren’t actually created with them in mind. It makes use of information from fourteen trans people from British Columbia’s Greater Vancouver Area and West Kootenays regions who participated in interviews and collaborative images. In a structure built around cisgender people, trans worry is choreographically delivered through dance. I also use dance to illustrate the improvised work that trans people put in to get access to that care.
Why do you use party as a analogy?
I was truly drawn to waltz metaphors as a previous ballet and modern dance. I didn’t want to concentrate solely on that because a lot of research in this area documents the negative experiences of trans people. I was able to record the standards and presumptions that are ingrained in reproductive health care spaces through improvement and dancing, and as a result, the function that trans people must do to modify those spaces and services to meet their needs.
How do those version techniques appear?
The book details more than a dozen methods used by trans people to tailor care to their needs by improvising and stitching up various aspects of care. This may involve deciding whether or not to inform a healthcare supplier, as well as when and how to reveal and conceal their identity. When their services were not well informed on trans-inclusive perinatal health care, individuals described having to rely on their own expertise, their peers, and the computer, as well as needing to create awareness and resource materials themselves.
Dr. A.J. Lowik’s Trans Citizens and the Choreography of Reproductive Healthcare: Dancing Beyond the Lines
What can be learned about sexual health attention from these activities?
First and foremost, that cisnormative sexual health treatment is generally designed to meet the needs of transgender people. There are still many presumptions about how transgender people are expected to behave in relation to their fertilization, despite the fact that we have made great strides toward trans-inclusive health care.
For instance, we observe trans people who, based on presumptions about their gender identity, are expected to reject or maintain their sexual capacity. Healthcare providers generally underestimate people like menstruating nonbinary people, trans men who are pregnant, and trans women who freeze their sperm. This has an effect on how trans people of all genders, who have a variety of reproductive health needs, ultimately receive and experience reproductive healthcare care.
My research, in my opinion, finally demonstrates that there is a place for self-reflection, policy and practice reform, and education. But in the end, the only way to achieve truly inclusive treatment is to dismantle harsh cisnormative systems.
What will you be doing following in your studies?
My second area of interest is how choreographic limitations apply to nursing professionals. Therefore, it is interesting to consider how providers are attempting to close knowledge gaps and create spaces that are trans-inclusive and gender-affirming while also becoming entangled in this type of artistic dance of oppressive systems. Although there are some truly outstanding trans healthcare providers available, many of the obstacles to trans-inclusive attention are much more fundamental, so I want to know what they are and how we can overcome them.
Members for a study on trans people’s experiences getting abortion care in Canada are now being sought out by Dr. Lowik. You can email [email protected] if you’re trans and 14+ and want to share your abortion experience. to find out more.
