Potpourri.

There are a number of trans articles that I want to cover this morning.

First off… Trans athletes a British study found,

Trans women retain athletic edge after a year of hormone therapy, study finds
The findings raise questions about current Olympic guidelines, but the lead author cautions against using them to back bans in recreational and school sports.
NBC News
By Dan Avery
January 5, 2021


A new study suggests transgender women maintain an athletic advantage over their cisgender peers even after a year on hormone therapy.

The results, published last month in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, could mean the current one-year waiting period for Olympic athletes who are transitioning is inadequate.

“For the Olympic level, the elite level, I'd say probably two years is more realistic than one year,” said the study's lead author, Dr. Timothy Roberts, a pediatrician and the director of the adolescent medicine training program at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. “At one year, the trans women on average still have an advantage over the cis women," he said, referring to cisgender, or nontransgender, women.
[…]
Active duty service members are required to take a physical readiness test every six to 12 months. Roberts, Smalley and another co-author, Dr. Dale Ahrendt, realized they had access to robust data on service members before, during and after they started hormone replacement treatment.

The three physicians conducted a retrospective review of medical records and fitness tests for 29 transgender men and 46 transgender women from 2013 to 2018. The Air Force’s fitness assessment includes the number of pushups and situps performed in a minute, and the time required to run 1.5 miles.

Looking at the actual study…

Study limitations and future directions
The strengths of this study include a larger sample size than previous studies, a longer follow-up period and a focus on performance on a standardised fitness test rather than isolated muscle strength. This study has limitations as well. The lack of a longitudinal control group not on testosterone or oestrogen makes changes in performance due to the passage of time a potential confounding factor…
[...]
Conclusion
In this study, we confirmed that use of gender affirming hormones are associated with changes in athletic performance and demonstrated that the pretreatment differences between transgender and cis gender women persist beyond the 12 month time requirement currently being proposed for athletic competition by the World Athletics and the IOC.10 This study suggests that more than 12 months of testosterone suppression may be needed to ensure that transgender women do not have an unfair competitive advantage when participating in elite level athletic competition. 

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Looking at an article from October. In Australia that have a harder time getting Gender-Confirming Surgery (I like using Gender-confirming surgery rather than Gender-Affirming Surgery because I don’t like having GAS)

Gender-affirming surgery and trans wellbeing
Archer
By: Dylan Strahan
October 20, 2020


Gender-affirming surgery occupies a strange place within the Australian medical system. It is ‘elective’, which simply means that it happens for non-life-saving reasons.

Gender-affirming surgeries are often mired in the language of ‘choice’, involving judgement around what kinds of pain, disability, and dysfunction are urgent, which are necessary, and which are deserving of public funds.

I had my top surgery between lockdowns. Initially, it was delayed by two months due to the elective surgery ban imposed by the Australian Government on 25 March 2020. Once the ban lifted, my surgery went ahead on 17 June.
[…]
Conversely, gender-affirming surgery has innumerable benefits which are difficult to place in medical terms.
[…]
The Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) makes no reference to trans patients, leading providers and patients to navigate language not designed for their purposes.

For example, I have an “established testicular disorder” despite not having testicles. Such a diagnosis allows me to claim my testosterone prescription under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), despite no explicit provisions for the treatment of trans people.

When it comes to top surgery, the amount claimable under Medicare is $1,029 of the surgeon’s fees, and $229 of the anaesthetist’s fees. Surgeons and anaesthetists’ fees vary wildly, but my own were $6,000 and $2,100 respectively, bringing me to a total of $8,100. After claiming back from Medicare, I was still $6,841 out of pocket.

Here in the states Medicare covers…

Medicare pays for gender reassignment surgeries and hormone replacement therapy, as long as the surgery is deemed medically necessary. There are several surgeries a person needs to finish the process.

Medicare Advantage plans may apply different rules when considering approval for surgeries.

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Lastly some sad news out of Texas,

Transgender Texas Politician Addison Perry-Franks Dies at 39
The passionate Democrat fought for the rights of all.
Out Smart
By Marene Gustin
January 4, 2021


Transgender politician Addison Perry-Franks, 39, passed away on the first day of the new year after her wife rushed her to Cogdell Memorial Hospital in Snyder, Texas. The cause of death was unknown at press time and there was to be no visitation, but condolences can be left on the Bell-Cypert-Seale funeral home website at bcsfh.com. Perry-Franks’ wife, Lacey Franks, has a fundraiser on her Facebook page to pay for funeral expenses.

“The love of my life has passed away today,” Franks wrote on January 1. “I don’t have all of the details till the autopsy comes back. The world is a darker place without her light shining in it.”

Perry-Franks was a passionate West Texas Democrat who stood for the rights of all. Last year, she ran for Texas House District 83 and for mayor of Synder, her hometown. Although she lost both races, she had an empowering impact on the party, the community, and her family.