Transgender man denied hysterectomy at Mercy San Juan
Instead he spent the day on the phone with doctors and lawyers after Mercy San Juan hospital in Carmichael abruptly canceled the procedure on religious grounds.
The surgery, part of Minton's transition to a fully male body, had been scheduled for three weeks but was called off Monday as hospital officials were preparing his admissions paperwork.
Both Minton and his surgeon, Dr.
"I was a little bit blindsided by it," said Dawson, a
"When I got that news, I fell on the ground and cried uncontrollably," said Minton, a 35-year-old state legislative aide who has been preparing for the procedure for the past year. "It hurt because of the fact that I'm being discriminated against based on my innate and immutable characteristics, and it also hurt because it put everything in flux."
The hospital, part of the
In a statement,
"In general, it is our practice not to provide sterilization services at
In Minton's case, there is a clear, medical need for a hysterectomy, according to his surgeon.
"Gender dysphoria is very clearly a pathology," said Dawson. "It's a recognized state of health," noting that national obstetrics groups recommend that transitioning transgender patients be put on hormones and provided with appropriate surgeries.
She said Minton is her first patient seeking a hysterectomy as a part of gender transition care.
Minton, who came out as transgender six years ago and has been living as a man since, takes male hormones and has already undergone a double mastectomy. He is scheduled to have a phalloplasty, or male organ construction surgery, on
Every setback in the transition process means more time that Minton spends feeling uncomfortable in his body, he said.
"It makes me feel like I want to crawl out of my skin," he said. "It brings me to my knees, it gives me anxiety, it makes me so emotional and that's when I know that I need to take the next step in my transition. ... I want to live as the complete man that I know myself to be. That's all."
A 2013 law requires all insurance entities regulated by the
Having a hospital refuse to perform a procedure is an entirely different issue, he said.
"We know that these are life-saving procedures for transgender individuals," he said. "It's not up to (hospitals) to decide."
Mental health experts say transgender people are at high risk for suicide with 41 percent of transgender individuals having attempted suicide, compared to 4.6 percent of the overall
Last year, the
"Trans patients must have and deserve meaningful comprehensive access to health care, without burdensome and unnecessary preconditions. Unfortunately, that's what
Despite Tuesday's surgery cancellation,
"I don't blame the staff," Dawson said. "I don't blame the administrators. I blame the (Catholic) doctrines."
Minton was tentatively scheduled for his hysterectomy on Friday at Methodist .
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