The GenderGP Podcast

During Dr Helen Webberley’s hearing we’re bringing you Transitions, a new mini-series from the GenderGP podcast. GenderGP team member, Cleo Madeleine, will be joined by members of the community to talk about the journeys they have been on, the transitions they have been through and the moments that changed everything.

Jamie's store is Unisex Unity. We have loads of links for healthcare professionals in our Medical Hub, and if you'd like to find out more about the GenderGP Fund you can visit our website. If you’ve got a story of your own you’d like to share, why not reach out on social media where you can find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

 

Ask A Question

 

We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Transitions: Jamie

 

Cleo Madeleine:

Hi there. My name's Cleo Madeline from gender GP, and I'm stepping in for Dr. Helen Webberley for a special new mini series of the gender GP podcast. Over the next few weeks, we'll hear firsthand accounts from members of the community, the journeys they've been on, the transitions they've been through and the moments that changed everything. Hi everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the gender GP podcast today in the studio with me, I've got Jamie franchini. Hi, Jamie, could you tell us a bit about who you are and what it is that you do?

Jamie Franchini:

I am currently a student chiropractor in my final year, and I've just opened an online unisex store. I've been socially transition now, female to male for about just over a year. And luckily I had the positives of lockdown to actually explore that transition and, you know, to really, yeah, I, I guess kind of like self indulge, a bit reading and watching YouTube and, and

Cleo Madeleine:

That's actually really interesting to hear because I've seen quite a lot of horror stories about how, uh, you know, lockdown has been bad for the L G B T community in one way or another. And I'm absolutely certain that that is the truth, but it's really cool to hear that actually, that almost enforced period of gave you some

Jamie Franchini:

Time. Yeah. I mean, I'm quite a social person, but I also I'm quite sensitive to other people's emotions. So I think that, yeah, I think it just allowed me the time to have enough of the changes from testosterone to feel more confident to go out in the world, because obviously there's the issue of not being able to pass or more so that people assume people's pronouns. Mm. So for me, especially in my degree, it's a lot of physical practice, so yeah, I just needed that time to basically look different, come back with a much deeper voice. And now I'm seeing student again, it's almost like coming back as a completely different person.

Cleo Madeleine:

I think that's really valuable. I mean, it's now donkeys is since I transitioned, but one of the bits of advice I have often given is if you can, and I know that not everyone can because of work and time and you know, sometimes the pandemic doesn't come at the right time. But, um, one of the bits of advice I always try to give is when you are socially transitioning, whether it's at work or at school, or just in general, try and give yourself a bit of a clean break, even if it's just a weekend, you know,

During Dr Helen Webberley’s hearing we’re bringing you Transitions, a new mini-series from the GenderGP podcast. GenderGP team member, Cleo Madeleine, will be joined by members of the community to talk about the journeys they have been on, the transitions they have been through and the moments that changed everything.

If you’d like to know more about our services you can contact us, or read more on our website. If you’ve got a story of your own you’d like to share, why not reach out on social media where you can find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

 

Ask A Question

 

We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Transitions: Ezra

 

Cleo:

Hi there. My name's Cleo Madeline from Gender GP, and I'm stepping in for Dr. Helen Webberley for a special new mini series of the Gender GP podcast. Over the next few weeks, we'll hear firsthand accounts from members of the community, the journeys they've been on, the transitions they've been through and the moments that changed everything. Hi everybody. And welcome back to the Gender GP podcast. I'm Cleo Madeline and my pronouns are she/her. And with me in the studio today is Ezra. Ezra. Could you just talk to us a bit about who you are and what it is that you do?

Ezra:

Okay, cool. Hi, I'm Ezra. I'm a non-binary person and I've kind of like identified that way for, at this point, most of my life. So it is like a big part of who. I am, I work at Gender GP as well. I'm a pathway advisor and I work in the new patients division. So I work a lot with kind of like new people coming into the service and helping people like get started on their journey and stuff, which is really rewarding and really cool. Yeah. I've recently qualified as a barber, so I'm kind of currently working on that as well. I've just started working in that a bit more like professionally as well, and yeah, that's also really rewarding and fulfilling.

Cleo:

Amazing. Fantastic. I've got so many questions just off the back of that. This is an interview with delight, I guess, first of all, working at Gender GP with new patients, there must be reward, but also quite challenging. You know, we, I think run a really important, good, amazing service, but also you in a perfect world, nobody would go for private healthcare. Right? So that you must also find that there are people who come to the service who have had a bad time. Right?

Ezra:

Absolutely. I mean, it's difficult because it's something I've said since I started said working at the company. And since I started my specific role is I realized very quickly that if the NHS was functioning properly and doing what they were supposed to be doing, that I wouldn't really have a job. And honestly I'd be okay with it because if people were accessing the care that they need in the way that they should be able to, yeah, there'd be no need for Gender GP. And I really, I think everyone at Gender GP can like, would agree when they say like, we'd be okay with that. That's in an ideal world. That's what would happen. Um, but we're not quite in an ideal world. And as such, you know, there is a need for the service that we provide. And a lot of patients that kind of a lot of, uh, forms and stuff that I processed. And a lot of stories that I see are not particularly happy ones.

During Dr Helen Webberley’s hearing we’re bringing you Transitions, a new mini-series from the GenderGP podcast. GenderGP team member, Cleo Madeleine, will be joined by members of the community to talk about the journeys they have been on, the transitions they have been through and the moments that changed everything.

We have loads of links for healthcare professionals in our Medical Hub. If you’d like to know more about our services you can contact us, or read more on our website. If you’ve got a story of your own you’d like to share, why not reach out on social media where you can find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

 

Ask A Question

 

We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Transitions: Oliver

 

Cleo:

Hi there. My name's Cleo Madeline from Gender GP, and I'm stepping in for Dr. Helen Webberley for a special new mini series of the Gender GP podcast. Over the next few weeks, we'll hear firsthand accounts from members of the community about earnings. They've been on the transitions they've been through and the moments that changed everything. Hi everybody, and welcome to this new episode of the Gender GP podcast. And here in the studio with me today is Oliver. Oliver, Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. Could you take a minute to tell us a little bit about who you are and, uh, what it is that you do?

Oliver:

Yeah, so my name's Oliver and I'm a pathway advisor for Gender GP. I work within the queries team. Um, so I basically spend my days answering patient queries. Um, anything that they may want to ask us things like their medication or what they need to do in terms of, uh, their treatment myself and my team provide answers to those on a daily basis.

Cleo:

So you're like the, like the bread and butter of Gender GP, keeping the, keeping the machine working so that everyone's mind can stay happy and easy.

Oliver:

You Could say. So in a way. Yeah,

Cleo:

No, that that's really cool. Uh, in our most recent episode, I talked to Marianna a little bit about what it's like in the comms team. You know, we keep abreast of what's going on over in patient services, but there is a lot of the day to day work that we don't see. Yeah. You must have hundreds of patients come through in a day. Right. We

Oliver:

Do get hundreds of queries every day. Um, obviously we have, I think we're up to about five and a half thousand patients worldwide, I Think

Cleo:

five and a half thousand. Wow.

Oliver:

Um, so yeah, there's, there's always quite a lot of queries. There's always a lot to do, but it's good because it keeps us really busy. And I really love the work that we do. I've only been there for like two months now, but, you know, I think being able to be a part of Gender GP has so far been absolutely amazing. So yeah,

Cleo:

Certainly that's a common theme that's come up, which is that regardless of like what job role you do or where you're coming from, people have come here because they wanted to make a di...

During Dr Helen Webberley’s hearing we’re bringing you Transitions, a new mini-series from the GenderGP podcast. GenderGP team member, Cleo Madeleine, will be joined by members of the community to talk about the journeys they have been on, the transitions they have been through and the moments that changed everything.

If you’d like to know more about our services you can contact us, or read more on our website. If you’ve got a story of your own you’d like to share, why not reach out on social media where you can find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

 

Ask A Question

 

We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Transitions: Rhy

 

Hi there. My name is Cleo Madeleine from GenderGP, and I'm stepping in for Dr. Helen Webberley for a special new mini-series of the GenderGP Podcast. Over the next few weeks, we'll hear firsthand accounts from members of the community about the journeys they've been on the transitions they've been through and the moments that changed everything.

 

Cleo Madeleine:

Hi everybody, and welcome back to the show. My name is Cleo Madeleine, and my pronouns are she/her, and today in the studio with us, we've got Rhy Brignell. Rhy, could you tell us a bit about who you are and why you're here today?

Rhy Brignell:

Hello, my name is Rhy, my pronouns are they/them, I am the Quality Assurance Officer at GenderGP, which basically means I look at things that are going right, and identify why and how we can do that more, and things that aren't going so well and why that's happening and how we can change it and improve it. So, yeah, I'm looking at auditing and monitoring feedback and things like that.

Cleo Madeleine:

So in a sense, you've got like the keys to the kingdom really.

Rhy Brignell:

I see everything.

Cleo Madeleine:

Most of us are just responsible for doing our own jobs right. Whereas, you're responsible for all of us doing our jobs right. No, it's really cool. So I, you and I have a relationship that extends beyond GenderGP, and you're the only person I'm speaking to for this series where that's the case. And so I've had the privilege of seeing your kind of meteoric rise to a QA. No, it's been really, it's been really cool to see. I suppose there's two questions following this. How did you get to the point? Cause you basically built the QA department within GenderGP from scratch, right?

Rhy Brignell:

Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't entirely on my own back, definitely had a lot of very knowledgeable people helping me along the way, but yeah, the QA department is a relatively recent endeavor for GGP. And so I've been working on putting together a framework for how it's going to operate and what it looks like. And yeah, it's definitely a work in progress.

Cleo Madeleine:

There are two questions from this, I suppose. What was it that, when you were at GenderGP steered you towards thinking about quality assurance, and what was it when you weren't at GenderGP that steered you towards this line of work?

Rhy Brignell:

The questions? For the first question,

During Dr Helen Webberley’s hearing we’re bringing you Transitions, a new mini-series from the GenderGP podcast. GenderGP team member, Cleo Madeleine, will be joined by members of the community to talk about the journeys they have been on, the transitions they have been through and the moments that changed everything.

If you’d like to know more about our services you can contact us, or read more on our website. If you’ve got a story of your own you’d like to share, why not reach out on social media where you can find us at @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

 

Ask A Question

 

We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Transitions: Clark

 

Hi there. My name is Cleo Madeleine from GenderGP, and I'm stepping in for Dr. Helen Webberley for a special new mini-series of the GenderGP Podcast. Over the next few weeks, we'll hear firsthand accounts from members of the community about the journeys they've been on the transitions they've been through and the moments that changed everything.

 

Cleo Madeleine:

Hi there, everyone. This is Cleo Madeleine, my pronouns are she/her, and today in the studio with me, I have Clark. Clark, could you just tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is that you do here at GenderGP?

Clark:

I'm a patient pathway advisor, so I mostly answer patient questions and queries, make sure everybody has the information that they need. If there's any questions or concerns, then I help handle those. For something about myself, I'm from the United States, I'm from Florida originally, came over to go to art school, got a BA in illustration. So I'm creative, originally.

Cleo Madeleine:

That's amazing. So what sort of illustration did you use to do, or do you still do?

Clark:

I still do it, mostly mixed media. So I like doing collages, large-scale stuff. I also did a few short stories illustrated, a couple of which were published, but I'm not sure where that ended up is, as it usually goes.

Cleo Madeleine:

That's really cool though, because like, there are so many interesting people out there you know, in the company, in the community who can do amazing things like this, but you never find that out if all you ever talk about is, like, the trans issues. And then those are really, really important to talk about, but they're not everything, you know? So what brought you to this line of work, then?

Clark:

I also have a history in administration. A lot of what I did was, at my previous role, I worked with education and local government. So I'm very used to working with vulnerable populations and as a trans person, myself, this is kind of my vulnerable population. So I wanted to put my skills towards kind of helping out, especially because there aren't that many organizations or, or people that are sort of together cohesively and sort of working towards addressing kind of immediate needs, you know, healthcare access, support, that kind of thing.

Cleo Madeleine:

That's so true. I come from like an administrative background in education, but also I was in academia for a while. And what are the things that really struck me while I was,

CW: This episode contains a sustained description of self harm from 2:19-2:33

 

During Dr Helen Webberley’s hearing we’re bringing you Transitions, a new mini-series from the GenderGP podcast. GenderGP team member, Cleo Madeleine, will be joined by members of the community to talk about the journeys they have been on, the transitions they have been through and the moments that changed everything.

If you’d like to know more about our services you can contact us, or read more on our website. If you’ve got a story of your own you’d like to share, why not reach out on social media where you can find us @GenderGP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Transitions: Marianne

 

Hi there. My name is Cleo Madeleine from GenderGP, and I'm stepping in for Dr. Helen Webberley for a special new mini-series of the GenderGP Podcast. Over the next few weeks, we'll hear firsthand accounts from members of the community about the journeys they've been on the transitions they've been through and the moments that changed everything.

 

Cleo Madeleine:

Hi everybody, and welcome to the show. My name is Cleo Madeleine, my pronouns are she/her, and here with me today is Marianne Oakes. Marianne, could you just tell us a little bit about yourself and what it is you do here with GenderGP?

Marianne Oakes:

So, yes. I think it's pretty well documented. I am a trans woman. I'm proud of that. I am also the lead therapist at GenderGP, which basically means I just always see the other counsellors, make sure that they're, you know, if they have any dilemmas working with any of our patients that you've got the support that they need, or if they've, you know, if they're challenged in any way. But ultimately I'd like to think that I take charge of the emotional wellbeing of all the patients at GenderGP in some kind of way. And again, I also make sure that anybody joining the team fits with the philosophy that GenderGP has adopted, which is basically gender affirming therapy.

Cleo Madeleine:

That's so important. There's so much in there about wellbeing and affirmation. I think really speaks a lot to both of your work, but also to you as a person like this huge commitment to making sure that people who have often had to go through a lot by the time they get to us, get what they need from us. It's certainly been my experience, anyway. You've been here longer than I have.

Marianne Oakes:

Well, I'd like to believe, you know, I don't want to big up my department, but I'm going to. I'd like to believe one of the things that makes, one of the things that makes GenderGP unique is that we have a big wellbeing team. There is no lack of support for people and emotional wellbeing. And I think a lot of focus when people are transitioning is on the medical stuff, you know, medically transitioning, but actually a big part of transition is emotionally transitioning. It's about switching our mind to this is happening, this is who I am. And that comes with its challenges. And, you know, we, we get a whole mixed array of people coming to us with different mental health, some have serious mental health issues and eating disorders. I mean, some of the self-harm that I've had the privilege to witness, just seeing the scars from how deep people have cut themselves an...

On this special episode of the GenderGP podcast, Helen and Marianne sit down and talk about the upcoming Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service hearing. Helen shares her hopes and fears for what's to come, talks about her support from the community, and tells her story - in her own words.

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.

We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Implications of the MPTS Hearing

 

Helen:

Hello, this is Dr. Helen. Webberley welcome to our Gender GP 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 Oaks, a trans woman, herself and our head of therapies.

Hi, everyone on a slightly different podcast today. It's just Marianne and I, and I have to say for the first time I feel nervous. I feel a bit kind of, uh, I dunno, emotional, I guess, because what we are talking about the last five years and how Gender GP started, how it progressed, and then how it has ended up in a, at the end of July in a, a big 55 day tribunal hearing, which will be hearing, um, whether my medical license, um, can be reinstated. It's been a long, long journey, but I thought it would be a good idea just to share with you how things have unraveled. And I've got my good friend Marianne with me today because she's been with me from the start and she's a good sounding board and anyone out there who's ever had a, a cry on Marianne's shoulder.

I think, you know, she's an appropriate person to guide me through the story that I'm about to tell you. So back in 2015, I was a, a GP in a small Valley's village in Wales as quite a deprived area. And I was one of those doctors who kind of thought that I'd never really met that many trans people before. We certainly didn't have lots and lots of trans patients in our surgery, if any, at all. So I'd obviously I'd met trans patients in my work doing sexual health, but not in a kind of general practice setting. And one day a patient came to see me. She was about 55 ish, I guess. So we're in Wales, we're in the valleys. And she said to me, I want to transition and how do I go about it? And I was like, I dunno, I've got no idea.

You know, I'm fairly new to Wales. I don't know how this is gonna go, but I'll look it up and I'll come back to you and come back and see me next week. So I did a bit of research and I realized when she came back to see me next week, um, and told her what I'd found as I told her, what we had to do, basically what I was telling her was she would have to get on a train from this valley village. And there would be one change on the train to get to Cardiff another change from Cardiff to get to London. And she would have to go to London on this train and turn up at the clinic there wearing a dress. She'd have to go wearing something that made her look like a woman. And she would have to then see the consultants there.

And as I was telling her this story, you know, even the first bit, even the first bit getting on the train to the local train station to do the change to card, if was just not in this person's radar, nevermind presenting female on a train into London where she'd never before. As I kind of relayed the story, my words fell away.

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.

We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.

 

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 ...

In this episode of the GenderGP podcast Helen and Marianne are joined by stef shuster (they/them), an assistant professor of sociology at Michigan State University. They discuss stef’s research on how healthcare providers respond to their trans patients - in both good ways and bad - and imagine what excellence in trans healthcare might look like.

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.

We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.

 

Links:

Doctors treating trans youth grapple with uncertainty, lack of training | The Conversation

Why We Need To End Gatekeeping | The GenderGP Podcast

stef shuster is on Twitter @stefshuster. Their book, Trans Medicine, is available from NYU Press.

 

Get access to the care you need today

 

The GenderGP Podcast

Excellence in Trans Healthcare

 

Hello, this is Dr. Helen. Webberley welcome to our Gender GP 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 therapies.

 

Helen:

Hi everyone, Marianne and I here we have Stef Shuster here today with us, um, as our guest and as usual, I'm going to hand over to them and let them introduce themselves, tell you all about them and why they might be here and what their passion and their energy is in this area of conversation. So welcome Stef. Lovely to have you.

Stef:

Yeah, thanks for having me. So I, um, I a, an assistant professor of sociology at Michigan state university, and I've spent the last decade or so studying how medical providers learn to work with trans people, um, the challenges they experience, the uncertainties they have and how gender plays out within medicine itself.

Helen:

Okay. So that makes you someone that I'm really, really excited to talk to for the next hour. so you've worked on this for some years. What have you found?

Stef:

Yeah, I mean, a lot of course um, so I guess I began my research going to the Kinsey Institute, which is located at Indiana university and looking at their archives and reading through medical correspondence between providers who are working in the 1950s and 60s. Um, and so I guess one of the findings from the historical work is that they really struggled. Um, knowing how to work with trans people, how to make sense of trans people, the role of therapists, um, wasn't immediate. So for some time they thought that for example, trans people represented a form of schizophrenia, right. Um, because they thought that trans people were delusional for identifying as a gender that was different from their assigned sex. And so for me, what was interesting was to begin in the archives and then to interview providers right now, working with trans people and to hear some of those similar concerns.

So I think that one of the biggest forms of uncertainty that has just carried through over the last 70 years is really that medical providers are not usually trained to work with gender, right.

In a special episode of the GenderGP podcast, Marianne is joined by our own Chief Operating Officer, Katie Tiplady-Startin, to talk about which services we offer, who can use them, and how we work to make gender-affirming healthcare accessible to everyone who needs it.

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.

We are always happy to accept ideas for future shows, so if there is something in particular you would like us to discuss, or a specific guest you would love to hear from, let us know. Your feedback is really important to us. If you could take a minute or two to leave us a review and rating for the podcast on your favourite podcast app, it will help others to discover us.

 

Links:

Gillick competency and body autonomy for transgender youth | GenderGP

Bell and Mrs A v The Tavistock | GenderGP

How GenderGP Operates | GenderGP

 

Get access to the care you need today

 

The GenderGP Podcast

GenderGP Q&A: How To Use The Service

 

Hello, this is Dr. Helen. Webberley welcome to our GenderGP podcast, where we will be discussing some of the issues affecting the trans and nonbinary community in the world today. Together with my co-host Marianne Oaks, a trans woman, herself, and our head of therapy.

 

Marianne Oakes:

Good afternoon everybody, and welcome to the GenderGP podcast. Today, we're going to try and answer some questions that we frequently get asked by our patient groups and by new people coming to the service, and to help me do that, I've got the wonderful Katie. Instead of me trying to introduce her because she is a multi-talented person, I'm going to ask Katie to introduce herself. So welcome Katie, and would you like to just tell the listener a little bit about yourself?

Katie Tiplady-Startin:

Thank you, Marianne. I'm not entirely sure I'm going to live up to that introduction, but I'll do my best. So I'm Katie. I started working with Helen Webberley way back in the day. I was the first person that she brought into GenderGP. Some of you will have seen my name on messages and information on the website over the years. But now my role is Chief Operating Officer at GenderGP, and that actually encompasses all of the patient services. So the wellbeing teams, the medical teams, the, the pathway teams that most people would have had some interaction with if you're, if you're with the service. And my day-to-day role is basically to keep everything ticking along, making sure that it's still working well, and if we need to change anything that, you know, we do that quickly and well, so hopefully I can answer some of these frequently asked questions, but I think the key to say is that GenderGP is moving with what's needed. So some of the answers that you might hear from this episode might be different if you'd have looked at the website two, three years ago.

Marianne Oakes:

I just wanted to add as well, Katie, uh so the listener understands, when me and Helen get things wrong, Katie's the one that, the one that slaps our legs and keeps us all in check. In fact, if anybody gets anything wrong on the team, there is a lot to remember working at GenderGP and, and there's only one person who we can rely on to make sure we're all going in the same direction and that's Katie. So,

Katie Tiplady-Startin:

Oh, do I need to send you something Marianne? Send you a present for all of that lovely, all of those lovely things.