This past April, Arkansas became the first state to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Tennessee followed suit more recently, with over 100 other anti-trans bills awaiting action in state legislatures from Maine to Texas.
Unsurprisingly, such activity has left doctors who work with this population asking questions: “how do I honor my medical standards of care? And how do I not abandon my patients?” Yet there is a more fundamental question that is being passed over here: how has gender come to be defined by doctors in the first place?
In "Trans Medicine: The Emergence and Practice of Treating Gender," the traditional focus of trans monographs shifts dramatically. Rather than spotlighting the trans experience, medical sociologist stef shuster trains their attention on the medical community itself, and in the process seeks to answer fundamental questions.
