Can we talk about WPATH?

[heresyandwitchcraft]

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) is having a meeting right now.

As an international interdisciplinary, professional organization, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) will work to further the understanding and treatment of gender dysphoria by professionals in medicine, psychology, law, social work, counseling, psychotherapy, family studies, sociology, anthropology, sexology, speech and voice therapy, and other related fields.
www.wpath.org/about/mission-and-vision

Stephen Whittle, prominent trans activist of Press for Change UK, was the first non-medically trained president of WPATH between 2007-2009
www.wpath.org/about/history

I've had a skim through their symposium agenda, noted a few familiar names, including Susie Green of Mermaids on a Child and Adolescent Panel: Development of Gender; Dilemma’s and Perspectives from a Researcher, a Clinician and a Parent (p 10).

On p 22 is a topic we have discussed on the board before - UTERUS TRANSPLANTATION: THE NEXT FRONTIER OF TRANSGENDER FERTILITY. Vikram Mookerjee, BA; Miguel Dorante, BS; Raman Mehrzad, MD; Daniel Kwan, MD

And I understand Dr Helen and Dr Mike Webberley are presenting posters at this meeting.

www.wpath.org/25th-symposium-info

The schedule for is linked below. I haven't gone through it in detail, but I found it very interesting to take a look to see what subjects are being talked about, and who is attending.

www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/2018%20Buenos%20Aries/10-24_WPATH%20Symposium%20Schedule.pdf

What do we know about WPATH?

I'm going to have to stop reading the tweets on WPATH as I'm finding it truly terrifying,

One of the studies between GNC children and trans children seems to look at very shallow indicators.
twitter.com/green_susie100/status/1059518710564708353

They are looking at do you like girls toys or boys, who do you prefer playing with, who will you grow up to be.

Also, why are none of these 'studies' providing any definition of gender? It would all make a lot more sense if they were clear what they were talking about. But I guess if the end goal is surgery and hormones and being a 'real' woman you can't just say gender is societies construction of men/ women identities through clothes/ roles etc.

Thanks everyone for these links... Those Twitter threads are... I can't seem to find the right words. Illuminating? Disturbing?

Also, why are none of these 'studies' providing any definition of gender?
Fantastic question.

The comments under this don’t seem that supportive (but it could also be that I’m blocked by the ones who are receptive)

mobile.twitter.com/green_susie100/status/1059085046773137408

Susie Green at #WPATH2018 🇦🇷
@green_susie100
We are not going to accidentally make someone trans, even if we give them hormones...being trans is not a negative outcome. Johanna Olson-Kennedy Lets be less concerned about certainty and more concerned about improving the quality of people’s lives

They recognise the risks from puberty blockers, so instead of deciding that they should reduce their use, they advocate going onto cross sex hormones earlier.
There are risks associated with waiting until 16 to administer cross sex hormones, therefore this should be done on a case by case basis
twitter.com/green_susie100/status/1059177316901904394

Can we just leave kids alone? And not medicalize or problematize normal puberty or a child's biological sex? Please???

In other news:
The Trans Pregnancy Project is at WPATH. They presented a poster:
twitter.com/transpregnancy/status/1059036352963100679

They've also made a thread about the talks on reproductive issues:
twitter.com/transpregnancy/status/1059502569893040129

Very interesting Twitter thread:
twitter.com/NotRightRuth/status/1059432109947961344

Talks about sexist stereotypes, and attitudes towards intersex issues. Also covers suicidality and self-harm.

Some quotes:
For example, I have heard several accounts of practitioners defending the medically unnecessary, non-consensual surgeries on intersex infants at this conference from other attendees.

I have also observed posters produced by clinical researchers that tend towards sexist assumptions about "female" and "male" behaviours. #wpath2018

The figures of suicidality and discussion around self-harm is worth reading.
We know from other data that females unfortunately tend to self-harm more.

From the thread:
Jackman: Non-suicidal self-injury describes direct, purposeful harm to the body's surface without intent to die. Existing literature indicates that transmasculine spectrum people and non-binary people are particularly at injury of non-suicidal self harm.

Jackman moving on to report on quantitative findings from a survey with over 300 participants conducted thruogh Project AFFIRM.
53% reported lifetime history of non-suicidal self-injury. More common in transmasculine participants (61%) than transfeminine (39%). #wpath2018

I assume transmasculine people are female. Could these data basically just be saying that sex differences in self-harm remain post-transition?

I was reminded of this reading the very lively Future thread.
I'd be interested to hear about the presentation titled Uterus Transplantation: The Next Frontier of Transgender Fertility but can't find anything online.
Any news from this, um, "frontier"? Do they publish these presentations?

Professoress
I am not sure whether these abstracts get published. Searching the title only gives you the WPATH schedule for now. Will take a look and report back if I find anything.