Gender affirming surgeries treated as "non essential"; as hospitals prepare for COVID

For transgender and gender non-conforming people, gender-affirming surgeries are life-altering procedures, which, for many, can greatly reduce gender dysphoria and improve their quality of life. But in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, trans communities on Reddit and Twitter are being flooded with reports of postponed and canceled surgeries in the U.S., U.K., Spain, Thailand, and elsewhere, leading to enormous stress and disappointment on top of a global health crisis.

This underscores a common experience amongst trans people seeking medical care or surgery: Research has suggested that gender-affirming surgery, in particular, has a notable and long-term impact on mental health, but far too often, trans people already wait far longer than is safe or healthy for this care. Further delays can be dangerous and even life-threatening.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxekyz/transgender-surgeries-delayed-coronavirus-hospitals

One of the many ways in which the SARS2 pandemic is affecting normal people - not just the elderly and immunocompromized.

Yeah, that's because it is non-essential.
This is coming from a trans man. At the present time, gender reassignment surgeries are not a priority. I get that it's disappointing-I'm wondering if I'm even going to get my first gender clinic appointment this year (which I am due to have), but if I didn't, whilst disappointing, I would understand.
Trans people aren't going to die if they don't get GRS.
This is a pandemic, not discrimination or people not caring.

I work in the NHS in cancer care. Operations to remove cancers have been put on hold for the next few weeks. We have stopped all cancer screening. Do you have any idea about the impact of this. No probably not.

I work in the NHS in cancer care. Operations to remove cancers have been put on hold for the next few weeks. We have stopped all cancer screening. Do you have any idea about the impact of this. No probably not.


At long last someone with sense.

Please say this is a dark joke? Why on earth would they do this? As i said in a previous comment, whilst someone 'may' die from this bug many people will die simply by delaying treatment with many cancers - especially the more aggressive ones.

Yeah, that's because it is non-essential.
This is coming from a trans man. At the present time, gender reassignment surgeries are not a priority. I get that it's disappointing-I'm wondering if I'm even going to get my first gender clinic appointment this year (which I am due to have), but if I didn't, whilst disappointing, I would understand.
Trans people aren't going to die if they don't get GRS.
This is a pandemic, not discrimination or people not caring.

In fairness i can think of a fair few surgeries that should take priority over this. Whilst someone might die from covid someone will definitely die without an organ transplant or certain cancer related treatments (for example)

They are still carrying on cancer surgery (at least according to the BBC, and where I live)

I work in the NHS in cancer care. Operations to remove cancers have been put on hold for the next few weeks. We have stopped all cancer screening. Do you have any idea about the impact of this. No probably not.


At long last someone with sense.

I've been in constant pain for the last 10 years and the surgery to stop it has been cancelled. Am I mad? No. If I was going to die of the pain then I'd have died by now. I can wait. Its more important that lives are saved.

One would hope so.
Although i'm curious what would happen to the dedicated cancer hospitals like the Churchill if the covid situation really went tits up. Would it be converted into a normal hospital or continue in its specialist role?

Oh no, squirrel. That's terrible.

its quite stupid since cancer has a much higher death rate, we don't really need many doctors in this pandemic it's mostly nurses we need, so we should be building temporary facilities like they did in China and having nurses operate in them with few doctors reserved for the extreme cases, it shouldn't be drastically eating into our existing resources like it is

Please say this is a dark joke? Why on earth would they do this? As i said in a previous comment, whilst someone 'may' die from this bug many people will die simply by delaying treatment with many cancers - especially the more aggressive ones.

One would hope so.
Although i'm curious what would happen to the dedicated cancer hospitals like the Churchill if the covid situation really went tits up. Would it be converted into a normal hospital or continue in its specialist role?

So as I understand it..... we have a list of patients that we discuss each week and their outcomes. They appear to be grading according to severity. So I have one patient who has an incompletely excised cancer - normally she would get an operation within a couple of weeks to remove it. She has been told that she will have to wait until after the Covid19 has died down. She is unlikely to die of cancer but if that was me I would want it done like now. I think they will probably do the most severe, but it is the bed crisis. The older patients are more likely to need an intensive care bed post operatively. They are also at more risk of contracting the virus because - old, cancer, multiple comorbidities etc. So it is a fine balancing act - what is more likely to kill them - virus or cancer. Need the wisdom of Solomon for this.

A couple of years ago I had a patient whose cancer was curable. He decided to go on a cruise that he had already booked - couple of months. By the time he came back he was palliative - still horrifies me that one.

That's a really sad story. Nobody could have predicted that. We live in awful times right now.

good.

the idea of being transgender is MADE UP. you are the gender you were assigned at birth, unless intersex.

Not really relevant to this thread, though, is it