All People Deserve a Voice in Reproductive Care: Trans-Inclusion in Fat Studies

Abstract

This is a commentary on Ward and McPhail’s (2019) article “Fat Shame and Blame in Reproductive Care: Implications for Ethical Health Care Interactions.” Here we congratulate the authors for their research on and advocacy for ethical reproductive health care to fat cis women. However, we urge them (and all researchers and health care providers) to extend their concerns to trans masculine and intersex patients who need perinatal or other reproductive care. We discuss intersectionality and note the effect of multiple marginalized identities, such as are experienced by fat trans masculine pregnant people, and we emphasize the importance of providing a voice for all patients.

Keywords:

• Repronormativity
• trans-inclusive care
• transphobia
• fat phobia
• intersectionality

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 This commentary focuses on trans masculine experiences with reproductive care, but we should also note that trans feminine people also experience barriers to accessing affirming reproductive health care, and these barriers may be exacerbated for fat trans feminine people. It is becoming increasingly possible that trans feminine people may be able to become pregnant through procedures such as uterine transplants (Dickey, Ducheny, & Ehrbar, 2016). The intersections of cisnormativity, repronormativity, transmisogyny, and sizeism lead us to expect that fat trans feminine people seeking reproductive health care, and perhaps particularly assistive reproductive technologies, will experience significant barriers to access.