Feature
Patient-affirming care
The role of IR in gender-affirming medicine By Hope Racine
A
s interventional radiologists take an increasingly patient- focused, clinical approach to their practices, there’s
one demographic that IRs may be particularly positioned to treat: the LGBTQ community.
An underserved community LGBTQ patients face their own barriers and social determinants of health, especially transgender and nonbinary individuals seeking gender- affirming care. Discrimination and misunderstanding by the healthcare
system are rampant in this community, and up to 23% of transgender people report having been refused basic medical care based on their gender identity.1
In the United States, the
estimated acknowledged population of transgender individuals has doubled since 2011 to 14 million individuals— which indicates that a huge number of patients are seeking access to care.
“As a member of the LGBTQ community, I have personally experienced discrimination in medical settings, as have my friends,” said
Brittany Brookner, a recent Georgetown Medical School graduate. “There’s an upsettingly common belief in the queer community that people won’t live past 40 or even 30.”
Dr. Brookner, who will be completing her integrated-IR residency at the University of Pennsylvania, presented at SIR 2024 on the role that IR can play in the treatment of LGBTQ patients, inspired by her own experiences as both a queer patient and a physician-in-training.
“It felt like something I have the obligation and excitement to do something about, and for me, IR is the perfect field to enact change,” Dr. Brookner said.
Patients who do undergo gender- affirming treatment, both surgical and hormonal, are at risk of complications— the treatment of which can easily fall in the IR wheelhouse. As a result, IRs not only have an opportunity to build trust with an underserved community but are well-positioned to create relationships and referral patterns with
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