Abstract
Literature on transgender and gender nonconforming people has been seriously neglected in virtually all forms of publication, but particularly within health care. One issue that is frequently not discussed is the need for many transgender and gender nonconforming individuals to use reproductive technologies in order to have children. While it is becoming increasingly more common for transgender adults to seek out fertility treatments, evolving medical practices with children and adolescents has brought this discussion into a far more contentious arena. Through a combined analysis using queer and trans theory, feminist theory, and bioethics, this chapter briefly analyzes important aspects of the use of hormone treatments on children and adolescents with the intention of alleviating gender dysphoria. This analysis moves into a discussion of fertility preservation itself, and the options that are available for this particular population. These options, and their ethical feasibility, are balanced against fertility preservation options for other young people, as seen in oncofertility.
Once these options have been outlined, each is assessed based on their consideration of the individual undergoing treatment, biological constraints, ethics, and legality. Finally, recommendations are made detailing general guidelines to follow, however stressing that it is extremely important to judge each situation and individual independently and from multiple perspectives.
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- 1.
For this discussion, “trans” indicates all individuals who identify as transgender, transsexual, and/or gender-nonconforming. This means that they do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth, and therefore may aim to “transition” socially or medically to better align their physical and/or social selves with their internal sense of their gender.
- 2.
Gender represents the internal sense of self one has in reference to the socially constructed roles of men and women. When an individual’s gender is in line with their sex assigned at birth they are cisgender, and when their gender is not in line with their sex assigned at birth, they may identify as transgender.
- 3.
Cissexism is the belief that transgender people or their unique needs are inherently inferior to or less important than those of cisgender people.
- 4.
Oncofertility is the use of fertility preservation and reproductive technologies in individuals undergoing cancer treatments.
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deNormand, S. (2017). Fertility Preservation in Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Youth and Adolescents. In: Campo-Engelstein, L., Burcher, P. (eds) Reproductive Ethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52630-0_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52630-0_6
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