Gender Transition as an Attending

[throwaway303]

Hi everyone,
This is a throwaway account for anonymity reasons. Anyway, I am a newish attending physician who is going through a gender identity exploration and heavily leaning towards transitioning from male to female. I am fortunate enough to have a good therapist and starting to get to know the community better (COVID is making it hard atm).
However, my question if anyone knows anyone who went through the transition process after becoming an attending? I know there are a lot of challenges for anyone going through this process but is there anything to consider for someone in my shoes? Would licensing and credentialing be similar to getting an ID changed? I also work a decent amount of locums. How would I go about disclosing that to the locums company and other hospitals? Should I even tell them anything?
Thank you everyone in advance

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[El-Rami]

I can't really help you as I am not in a position to give any sort of advice (i.e., "I don't know"), but I just wanted to tell you that I wish you good luck!

 

[tantacles]

This is awesome! I'm so happy that you're able to start the process of coming out and that you love yourself to the extent that you can make your transition.

I have zero advice for you. I do wish to say, though, that if one of my colleagues began gender transition, every single person at my work would be not only supportive but excited to be your colleague and chaperone (for lack of a better word) through this new transition. If you were at my workplace, and anyone ever said anything sexist or transphobic, my administrators and I would be filing that HR complaint within minutes. You know as well as I that transphobia has no place in medicine (or anywhere), and I hope your transition leaves you feeling fulfilled personally and professionally.

You. Own. Everything. Or if you happen to be Mercedes Iman Diamond: You. Earn. Everything.

 

[throwaway303]

Thank you both for your support! This is an incredibly challenging time for me: personally, emotionally, and professionally. I am learning more and more every day about myself and value supportive people like you to help me along the way. Thanks!

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Late af, but my doctor who handled my initial transition care was an attending for like 20+ years prior to transitioning. I'm not sure what hurdles she went through, but there are people that have done it. Good luck OP.

 

[Naruhodo]

I know of one transgender fellow and one transgender attending at my institution, though I don't know when in their lives either went through their transitions. The later is very involved in teaching about transgender care, leading a center, etc. whereas the former does not seems to have made it a large part of her career. I am 100% sure the person who leads the center would be open to receiving questions about licensing with a name change etc. and if you send me a direct message I can share her name and contact information.
Good luck with everything!

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Dissenting voices are few and unwelcome, I know...you probably already have, but in all sincerity and respect, you owe it to yourself to get the unbiased perspective those that have regretted their transition.

Transition regret is exceedingly rare in pretty much every study I've read (granted, not much research there). Here's a random paper citing a less than .1% regret rate, with only 22 out of ~22500 surgical patients citing regret due to a subsequent change in gender identity. The rest of the ~65 people who detransitioned did it due to interpersonal issues with family or friends, romantic issues, or botched surgeries. I'm sure if you look up other actual articles you'll see similarly low rates.

I'm sure you're not trying to be rude, but I can assure you that most transgender people have done way more soul searching on this topic than the average person probably does on anything in their lives. We don't need you to tell us to think twice.

Abstract: A Survey Study of Surgeons’ Experience with Regret and/or Reversal of Gender-Confirmation Surgeries

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[mvenus929]

Dissenting voices are few and unwelcome, I know...you probably already have, but in all sincerity and respect, you owe it to yourself to get the unbiased perspective those that have regretted their transition.

In addition to the post above, I will also anecdotally point out that those in our cohort who have decided to stop gender-affirming hormone therapy don't necessarily regret it--they see it as part of their journey that they needed to take, and usually end up identifying as non-binary.

 

[tantacles]

Dissenting voices are few and unwelcome, I know...you probably already have, but in all sincerity and respect, you owe it to yourself to get the unbiased perspective those that have regretted their transition.

Dislike. Please go away. We don't have downvotes here, but I hereby downvote this comment to hell.

 

[CorneliaSt]

I've been able to help the OP out with their questions over the last couple of months. If anyone else has similar questions about transitioning during their medical career you can DM me. I don't come here often anymore, but I do occasionally drop in

 

[Temporal_weapon]

Hey, would like to offer my support. You've definitely got this and you've definitely got a great web of people around you.

I'm happy to help! I've transitioned from FtM starting in 2017. I haven't started my medical career, but I am pre-med and willing to be supportive to you or anyone else who feels they need it.

 

[ereheman]

I started T almost 7 months ago and am now in the process of applying to medical schools (I believe that the doc who is overseeing my HRT was an attending before she transitioned). It's made an amazing difference and I *actually* feel like medical school is something I can do now.

I hope everything goes well for you ❤️