Transgender women with prostate cancer: Get over it.
By Howard Wolinsky
TheActiveSurveillor.com ran a couple of stories recently on whether researchers, clinicians, medical staff, and patients should abandon the term “men with prostate cancer” since a few transgender women who retain their prostates can get cancer.
I suggested an inclusive term be used such as “people with prostate cancer” or “patients with prostate cancer.”
I got some pushback from men who felt I had become “woke” and ought to stand down.
I don’t think anyone quit the newsletter. We can agree to disagree.
I ran a small survey of readers about changing our language to include our prostate cancer sisters. 65% supported the language change vs. 39% who opposed it. The opponents are louder.
Here’s a key question:
All respondents said they were straight. FYI.
Change will come slowly. I heard from a researcher in Europe who has adopted the terminology and dropped the term “men with prostate cancer.”
Why not sound off in the comments and vote in my Quick Survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MQLMFCN.
Meanwhile, I wrote a story about a male who said he/she was born as a female in a male body.
She finally decided to undergo surgery to mae a transition to being a woman after she was diagnosed with Gleason 9 cancer and underwent a prostatectomy.
The story of Eve (formerly Steve) and how her prostate cancer persuaded her to fully embrace her female identity appears in MedPageToday at: https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/apatientsjourney/99101?trw=no
(From a Grand Grounds at Transcare UCSF)