The Role of Medical Family Therapists in Reproductive Healthcare Settings Serving Gender Diverse Patients: a Reproductive Justice Approach

ABSTRACT

Transgender and gender non-conforming individuals have historically experienced discrimination accessing reproductive rights. This transcends into the ways in which the current systems of healthcare are structured to continue perpetuating the marginalization of this population of gender diverse persons, specifically as it relates to reproductive care. Throughout this paper, we will utilize a reproductive justice framework to explore ways in which transgender patients experience discrimination in unique ways through micro- and macroaggressions within the healthcare system based on the intersection of the reproductive healthcare services in which they are seeking, paying special attention to pregnancy and postpartum care, and their unique social identity. This paper will conclude with specific recommendations for how medical family therapists can impact healthcare systems by integrating trauma-informed care aligned with a reproductive justice framework.

KEYWORDS:

• medical family therapy
• transgender
• gender diverse
• reproductive healthcare
• medical family therapists

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The authors of these studies did not collect demographic information on gender identity and only refer to their participant sample as ‘women’ and ‘mothers’. Studies could have included participants who did not identify as cis women, but the authors of the present paper are unable to determine the gender identity composition beyond what is described.