TBAS meets TGD

A new syndrome is born.

Trans broken arm syndrome: A mixed-methods exploration of gender-related medical misattribution and invasive questioning

Gender-related medical misattribution and invasive questioning (GRMMIQ), colloquially known as “trans broken arm syndrome,” is a form of medical discrimination faced by transgender and gender diverse (TGD) patients wherein a provider incorrectly assumes that a medical condition results from a patient’s gender identity or medical transition. This phenomenon may take one of two forms: (1) the incorrect and explicit misattribution of gender identity or medical transition as being the cause of an acute complaint, or (2) invasive and unnecessary questions regarding a patient’s gender identity or gender transition status.

What I wonder is how these researchers know that the provider is incorrect in “assuming” – or suspecting, wondering, etc – that the medical condition could be the cause or a cause of an acute complaint.

Nearly one-third of participants reported experiencing GRMMIQ. Experiences were associated with outness to acute care providers and other types of gender-related discrimination in healthcare settings. Analysis of qualitative data revealed four primary themes: (1) assumptions of disordered thinking and being, (2) hyperfocus on aspects of medical transition, (3) cultural ignorance and incompetence, and (4) dismissiveness of the patient.

But do we know for absolutely certain that there is no disordered thinking involved? Have we absolutely nailed it down that “trans” is never a mistake or an illusion or a socially shaped way of viewing the self? I’ll be honest: I don’t think we have.

Comments

13 responses to “TBAS meets TGD”

  1. twiliter Avatar

    It’s like Musk Derangement Syndrome (or Trump). They’re geniuses, it’s everyone else who’re idiots.

  2. J.A. Avatar

    FYI, the lead author of this paper is transgender. As for “invasive questioning” I suppose it has to do with asking what a patient’s sex is.

  3. Acolyte of Sagan Avatar
    Acolyte of Sagan

    Have we absolutely nailed it down that “trans” is never a mistake or an illusion or a socially shaped way of viewing the self?

    Or an outward manifestation of deeper psychological issues?

  4. Sumi Avatar

    I can’t imagine why clinicians would assume “disordered thinking” simply because “gender dysphoria” is listed in the DSM5. It must be transphobia.

  5. Holms Avatar

    My god, those precious little fools. Reminds me of the ‘healthy at any size’ crowd, complaining that doctors keep pointing to their weight as a factor in their fatigue / breathlessness / diabetes etc. They look to that as a cause because there is a causative relationship.

    Analysis of qualitative data revealed four primary themes: (1) assumptions of disordered thinking and being, (2) hyperfocus on aspects of medical transition, (3) cultural ignorance and incompetence, and (4) dismissiveness of the patient.

    I’m sure it would suit the gender fantasist if the doctor assumed all facets of being gender special were perfect always.

  6. Ophelia Benson Avatar

    Well it is called gender SPECIAL after all.

  7. Your Name's not Bruce? Avatar
    Your Name’s not Bruce?

    Gender-related medical misattribution and invasive questioning (GRMMIQ), colloquially known as “trans broken arm syndrome,” is a form of medical discrimination faced by transgender and gender diverse (TGD) patients wherein a provider incorrectly assumes that a medical condition results from a patient’s gender identity or medical transition.

    Are they going to follow up this study by looking at doctors and clinicians who decide that patients presenting with any one of a wide-ranging and open-ended array of symptoms or comorbidities is in fact “born in the wrong body”, and best “treated” through “medical” transitioning? Believing you are the sex you are not (and can never be) is disordered thinking. Medically, affirming someone’s belief that they are the sex they are not (and can never be), or worse, convincing someone that that they are, is malpractice. Are these brave academics going to examine and review the (one would hope vigourous) criteria by which “gender medicine” screens out those who will desist with puberty, and those who will detransition, from the tiny number (assuming their are any at all) who would actually benefit from any such treatment to anything above placebo level? That’s a study I’d like to see. Would they support such a study, if they weren’t prepared to pursue it themselves? If not, why not?

    A doctor who practices reality-based medecine, who is outside of a transitioner’s charmed circle of “affirming” “caregivers” is not going to see medical treatment, they are going to see evidence of abuse. To them, the Emperor is not only naked, the Emperor does not exist. The “Emperor” is not the patient, but gender ideology itself. The patient ensnared by the trans-industrial complex is a victim. Shorn of the euphemized rationalizations and excuses of “gender affirming care”, the procedures are abuse, torture, and mutilation. A clinician who looks at the results of such mistreatment and butchery is not going to be looking at it through the rose-coloured glasses of someone trying to sell, manage, and bring about an impossible and illusory “trans euphoria.” They are right to question what is happening to the patient before them, to give an honest assessment of what has been done to them, rather than repeat the lies that they have already been told.

    Of course the writers of this study are going to see this as “discrimination.” They can’t afford to have their own assumptions face questions from outside the circle of gender-belief, just as psychics who can’t can’t perform their schtick in the presence of sceptics will blame their own failure on the hostility or “negative vibrations” of non-believing observers, rather than the non-existence of their supposed powers. “Gender affirming care” produces chronic conditions. Aggressive surgical and pharmaceutical treatments of a non-existant condition is going to be a huge source of iatrogenic illness. “Patients” are going essentially going to exorcists or witch doctors who speak in medical-adjacent language, and happen to sterilize their instruments. Doctors outside of the racket aren’t going to see its “benefits” to the patient. They will ask questions, which is what doctors are supposed to do. By labelling this reality-based scepticism as “discrimination” (DISCRIMINATION BAD!), genderists hope, through the power of captured institutions, to browbeat such sceptics into submission and conformity to genderism, to not rock the boat or give their game away. (This is what they’ve done with the forced teaming of “T” alongside the criminalization of gay conversion therapy, when “gender medicine” itself is gay conversion therapy with a vengeance, using drugs and scalpels on top of the psychological abuse and emotional blackmail. No takebacks or do overs. And it’s all in service to a viewpoint which as just as “faith based” as any conversion motivated by Old Time Religion. Every teen who desists makes Baby Judith Butler cry.) Genderists have to tread carefully, however, because they must stear any such efforts to demonize their oponents within the medical profession away from any line of enquiry that would result in an examination of the ethics and efficacy of the snake-oil they’re selling, to shine a narrow spotlight away from themselves, upon supposed medical “transphobia,” rather than a broader, and more thorough examination of the very ideas of “gender” and “transness” as a whole. They’ve got themselves a lovely glass house built on quicksand. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it.

  8. iknklast Avatar

    My god, those precious little fools. Reminds me of the ‘healthy at any size’ crowd, complaining that doctors keep pointing to their weight as a factor in their fatigue / breathlessness / diabetes etc. They look to that as a cause because there is a causative relationship.

    God, yes. I’ve been fuming about that for years. I have diabetes; my mother had diabetes. Both of us did much better when we lost weight (I’ve lost 70 pounds! I am now at my ideal weight, and I don’t get particularly hungry! I consider that an accomplishment, not an ableist goal.)

    As a biologist, I know that size can affect nearly everything about any species; humans are no different. My cat was obese when we adopted her. She is now at an appropriate weight, and she is an extremely active older cat, not showing the signs of age we expected she would by now. Size does matter. People took something perfectly rational, like not wanting women to be forced into anorexia to meet an unrealistic size goal, and turned it into a diatribe against yet another -ism they could shout at other people about.

    It’s almost as if the point is the shouting at other people, not the goal of making the world better. You get to show that you are better than everyone else, more virtuous…until the day they make one of the things you think and say into yet another ‘degrading’ -ism, and you become the shouted at.

  9. quixote Avatar

    As for intrusive questioning, sex hormones affect every single organ system in the body. Cross-sex hormones doubly so.

    No matter what you’ve come to the doctor for, the dosage and specific prescription of cross-sex hormones you’re on is more than relevant to figure out a treatment plan. It’s essential.

  10. Arcadia Avatar

    I have a feeling that the community coined the term “Trans Broken Arm Syndrome” because they thought they’d chosen an ailment that couldn’t possibly have anything to do with being trans. Quite unfortunately for them, it absolutely could. Puberty blockers are strongly associated with reduced bone density, leading to increased risk of broken bones, osteoporosis and osteopenia. Even their rhetoric cannot escape the awful reality that is their ideology and the numerous problems it causes.

  11. maddog1129 Avatar

    Now if only they found out the etiology of “trans broken neck syndrome.”

  12. Jim Baerg Avatar

    Iknklast: “As a biologist, I know that size can affect nearly everything about any species”

    Which reminded me of the classic essay by JBS Haldane “On Being the Right Size”. A web search will find several places online where it can be read.

  13. Freemage Avatar

    As someone who absolutely is carrying more weight on my midsection than is healthy, I will say it can be a challenge to get doctors to acknowledge that fact and its consequences, and then MOVE ON. Basically, there tends to be an assumption that only the extra weight is responsible for whatever my current ailment is, and that therefore there is no reason for looking at other issues.

    But as a man, part of my privilege is that I’m more able to insist on the doctor actually continuing to explore the issue. I know many women who absolutely cannot get a doctor to do anything unless they’ve been convinced that yes, she’s already working on weight loss. It goes hand in hand with getting a doctor to actually regard a female patient as a person in general, something that has been shown to frequently be quite difficult, with pain levels and other ailments being dismissed as simply part of being a woman.

    Now, I’m willing to believe there are some doctors who have similar issues when dealing with trans patients. A competent doctor should still investigate complaints in a comprehensive manner. However, the bit about intrusive questioning makes it clear that the paper’s writer is focusing on basic information gathering that is absolutely fundamental to medical treatment. Asking about the patient’s use of hormones, surgeries and so on is no more ‘intrusive’ than the doctor asking me to step on the scale at the start of the session.

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