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Please consider donating and sharing the GoFundMe to support Adriana Smith's family.
For those of you who aren't aware, Adriana Smith was taken off life support (June 17) after a C-section was administered to prematurely birth her child on June 13. The baby is alive and being monitored in the NICU. Her family will finally be able to bury their daughter.
Rest in power Adriana Smith.
Friendly reminder that if you support reproductive rights and bodily autonomy but say that disabled people shouldn't have children because they'll pass down their genes which is "cruel" or "abusive", you do not support reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. Reproductive rights do not only concern abortion for cis white abled women.
surrogacy commodifies the human body and treats it as a natural resource to be bought and sold, with many surrogates being impoverished women in the global south with few other options to make $$$. fuck off with saying we need to get more “pro surrogacy” or whatever the fuck.
All wombyn with wombs want to be loving mothers to their womb children. No Wombyn would ever want to use her Womb without being Loving Mother. I believe this because I'm a feminist.
I'm 19 but I already decided some years ago that I never want to get pregnant, and I'm on birth control but I know that's not a garunteed protection. Am I too young to have my uterus removed? I don't really have any need for it
Hi Anon,
Good for you for being proactive with your reproductive goals!
The good news is that there are a number of birth control options (hormonal and nonhormonal) that offer protection as good or better than tubal ligation (getting tubes tied), and some last as long as 10 years at a time.
The bad news is that you are unlikely to find a provider willing to perform an elective hysterectomy on anyone under the age of 35 without medical reasoning. There are several justifications for this; some are reasonable, and some are stupid (NOTE: in my opinion).
Let's talk about these two things separately. (2 posts!).
HYSTERECTOMY
Removal of the uterus, while a very common surgical procedure, is still a surgical procedure that has significant costs, risks and potential life-long side effects (and I'm NOT talking about fertility). Risks include everything from acute problems (hemorrhage, perforation, etc.), to longer-term health problems (increased risk of stroke, loss of bone density, urinary problems, heart attack, etc.) and sexual functioning issues (vaginal atrophy and dryness). It's not just like snapping out a Lego piece.
So when it comes to the prevention of childbearing, with no other medical reason given, many doctors will be unwilling to take these risks when there are safer alternatives. Medical reasons can include persistent heavy menstrual bleeding, fibroids or other uterine growths, gender-affirming surgery, endometriosis, etc. Even for these conditions, a hysterectomy is usually the treatment of last resort, and those seeking one may still struggle to get one.
Now . . . here's where the (in my opinion) stupid part comes in. We live in a country where an 18-year-old can choose to get elective cosmetic surgery like breast implants. I think there is a marked inconsistency in logic when we say that that young adult can make an informed decision about that surgery, but not in this situation. I do think it's a holdover from patriarchal handwringing about the ability of people with uteruses to make decisions about those uteruses. And yes, some doctors are overly concerned with preserving people's fertility even when the patient is adamant they don't care about preserving it. I don't know what the "right" age is to let young adults make these decisions for themselves, but I do think it should be consistent at least!
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So Anon - The TLDR is: I think you should be able to make this informed decision with the consultation of a gynecologist who gives you all the information you need, and who will take the time to verify that you do understand what you are consenting to, short- and long-term. But, you are also going to have a hard time finding that at this point in your life.
I hope you can get what you need (security from pregnancy) by using one of the long-acting reversible contraceptives I will mention in my other post.
finally some good news
I'm writing a story and I'd like to how trans people get/treat STDs. If they haven't had bottom surgery is it no different than someone with those parts who is cis? But if they have, what differences are there? How about someone with no genitals?
In general it's pretty much the same as it would be for cis people. Bloodwork and a urine sample are the standard, and aren't really any different based on what someone's genitalia is like.
Pap smears and other sorts of exams can be dysphoria inducing as well, and there's some situation where it may be difficult to use a speculum because of atrophy (which can be for all sorts of reasons, hormones, vaginismus, imperforate hymen, intersex stuff). And people whose vaginas are surgically constructed don't typically have a cervix, so pap smears don't really get done as far as I know. (Sometimes speculums are used for other things though, like making sure everything is healing right, trimming or removing stitches from surgery, etc.)
But for the most part, the differences for STI testing specifically are mostly social, and can go different ways based on who is administering the test. Pap smears are in particular stressful for trans people who may have genitalia that's been altered by hormones. (I know it's irrational but the worry about getting a boner during a pap test, for instance, has crossed my mind a lot.)
Some other testing can be thrown for a loop because of the way procedure etiquette works. I had to have a transvaginal ultrasound once to check for ovarian cysts and there were definitely parts of it that were weird for me. (Transvaginal ultrasounds involve the ultrasound wand going inside the front hole for an accurate reading of specific parts of the reproductive system.) For instance, the ultrasound tech was a cis man and as part of their protocol, a cis woman nurse had to be in the room while I underwent this procedure. I hadn't asked about that ahead of time or really thought anything about it - I was in the emergency room trying to get to the bottom of extreme abdominal pain and I figured I could endure what I needed to. But in an ideal world, I'd be able to ask for a non cis person to be in the room with me I think. (I came in an ambulance, which would not take my partner with me.) (It turned out to be a 4mm kidney stone by the way, no ovarian cysts.)
Another anecdote that may be relevant to this topic is that sometimes doctors get weird about not knowing what you're testing for, because they don't know what body parts you have (and which were added at what points, made of what material). Prior to the transvaginal ultrasound, a doctor asked me what "chromosomes" I had. I honestly told him I did not know, I hadn't ever had a karyotype test as far as I knew. The doctor stumbled over himself a lot and I don't remember what else he said right after that, other than he was fumbling, got corrected, and that he was clearly Trying His Best. I interrupted the second or third useless question with, "are you asking if I have ovaries in case it might be a burst ovarian cyst or something?"
He was instantly relieved and said yes, so I told him.
There's a big problem I've noticed, that when people talk about these sorts of topics, they aren't specific enough in order to address what they mean. We use euphemisms like "assigned female" because people don't know that someone "assigned female" can have literally any body type. People seem afraid to name body parts, so they use euphemisms that rely on stereotypes and assumptions in order to be understood. But when you realize that people "assigned female" can be intersex, can have hysterectomies, can have testes, can have phalloplasties, and that everyone's parts are more or less analogous (skenes gland = prostate, etc), you realize how useless these broad categories are. If you want to ask if someone could carry a pregnancy, ask if they could carry a pregnancy. Not if they have certain chromosomes or were DFAB. Specifics matter. If I knew I was XY, that doctor would probably have assumed that the pattern of people with XY chromosomes not menstruating would include me. And if I did have ovarian cysts, or even a pregnancy, this could have dramatically impacted my health outcomes. (There have been stillbirths because of situations like this where people did not act fast enough because of ignorance around trans bodies.) I could have given in and guessed my chromosomes when the doctor asked, but what if my answer turned out to not be true? And what if the lack of confidence in my answer saved my life in some way?
I realize this is pretty far deviated from your original topic, but in terms of testing difficulties, it does feel like the sort of anecdote that would be very informative about these issues.
- mod nat
Still has so much empty space on it!!! I will definitely be adding more patches as I figure things out and troubleshoot them. as a joke i started putting the places i’ve worked down one arm, so far i just have the two patches, but im pretty sure i could find more if i back through my things (do you throw away old work clothes? I’ve started keeping them as painting/crafting clothes for when things get messy, then i dont have to ruin my clothes)
It’s NEVER been about states’ rights. They will do this as soon as they get the chance and try to push a NATIONAL BAN.
VOTE, VOTE GODDAMNIT.
New bill aims at a nationwide ban on abortions after 15 weeks and is an updated version of a previous attempt
