On this episode of the GenderGP podcast Marianne is joined by Cleo Madeleine, our podcast producer, and special guest Dr Alison Berner. Dr Berner is a research fellow in oncology and specialist in gender identity whose research addresses barriers to accessing cervical screening for transmasculine people. Together they discuss the challenges facing trans and non-binary people in healthcare, and how we can change things for the better.

If you have been affected by any of the topics discussed in our podcast, and would like to get in touch, please contact us via the Help Centre. You can also contact us on social media where you will find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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Links:

 You can find your nearest NHS Patient and Liaison Service (PALS) office here.

NHS Population Screening: information for transgender people | Public Health England

I’m trans or non-binary, does this affect my cancer screening? | Cancer Research UK

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Making Medicine More Inclusive

 

Hello, this is Dr Helen Webberley. Welcome to our GenderGP Podcast, where we will be discussing some of the issues affecting the trans and non-binary community in the world today, together with my co-host Marianne Oakes, a trans woman herself, and our head of therapy.

 

Cleo Madeleine:

Hi everybody, and welcome to this episode of the GenderGP Podcast. As you can probably tell, Dr. Webberley isn't here today. My name is Cleo Madeleine, she/her, and I'll be standing in for her and with us are Marianne as always, our head of therapies, and Dr. Alison Berner. Alison, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and the work that you do?

Dr Alison Berner:

Absolutely. So I am a specialist trainee in medical oncology, which means I'm a cancer doctor. But I'm also a part-time gender identity specialist, seeing adults at the Gender Identity Clinic in London. As part of medical oncology side of my work, I'm a clinical research fellow, which means I do cancer research, and I also take the time out to do research at the intersection of gender identity and cancer care with the goal of improving cancer care for trans and non binary people, and also LGBTQ people more broadly.

Cleo Madeleine:

Thank you so much. It's really great to have you here because, and I don't know if this is something you want to speak to Marianne, we are committed to improving trans health care in the field of gender affirming care, but I guess one of the things that your work really shines a spotlight on is that actually trans health care is all health care that happens to transgender people.

Dr Alison Berner:

Yeah, absolutely. I think I was first inspired to work in this area absolutely because of that. So, as a junior doctor, there were a couple of instances where we had trans patients on the wards and I was, was really concerned that they were getting the same quality of care as everybody else. I felt like sometimes the discussions were a bit around kind of nuances of, you know, male versus female [inaudible] and things like that, and kind of less around the medical issues. And that was really what first drew my attention, and then being interested in the specialty of cancer and seeing that there wasn't as much going on in cancer research at that time ...