Life-Saving Trans Surgeries Are Being Postponed As Hospitals Prepare To Fight COVID-19
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Reddit and Twitter are being filled with reports from the trans community of postponed or canceled surgeries in the U.S., the U.K., Spain, Thailand and other countries, deeming the surgeries as “non-essential”.
Joshua Safer, Executive Director at Mount Sinai’s Centre for Transgender Medicine and Surgery told ‘Vice’ that all gender-related surgeries have been postponed at the New York City hospital where he works.
“In light of the difficult circumstances due to COVID-19, the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery has taken the extraordinary but necessary steps of postponing all non-emergent gender-affirming surgeries,” Safer said. “This will protect our transgender and non-binary patients from the risk of transmission of COVID-19 while at the hospital, and will allow the hospital the capacity to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients.”
At the same time, follow-up care may also be in jeopardy for those in recovery from recent surgery. Daniella LaGaccia, a trans woman living in New York, has been in recovery from her vaginoplasty for over three weeks and was rushed to the ER last week with some complications.
Although she has recovered and is back home she is fully aware that if this had happened today, it would be difficult to find someone to assist her at home in this emergency. Her follow up with her surgeon at Mount Sinai was done by sending pictures and having a phone call with her surgeon. “They really do care about their patients, and they talked with me remotely. They do that because they’re some of the best in the world at what they do,” she said.
Unfortunately, canceling or postponing surgery is a common experience in the trans community seeking medical care or surgery. Although research has suggested that gender-affirming surgery has a “notable and long-term impact on mental health” trans people have to wait for longer than is safe or healthy for this care, even without the coronavirus outbreak.
Violet Jones is a 29-year-old trans woman who has a procedure scheduled for May which has not yet been canceled, but she herself is feeling uncertain. Although she understands why hospitals are making the decision to postpone surgery amidst this global outbreak, her levels of anxiety have risen.
“I've spent my entire life falling asleep while begging any theoretical omnipotent beings to let me wake up in the body I need to feel comfortable, and, [in May], that was finally going to happen,” Jones said. “To lose that security would really harm my mental health and make it feel like it may never actually happen.” Despite this stress, Jones is trying to keep things in perspective because of COVID-19's vast impact on public health for everyone: “I understand that this is largely out of my hands, and that if/when the decision is made to cancel or reschedule the surgery, it'll be for the greater good of those who need facilities.”
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