Research Symposium

BIO

Avery Provost is a current freshman at FSU majoring in history. She is focused on U.S. history, pursing a History Bachelor and eventually a History Doctorate. Avery has spent the last year investigating the intersection between medical misinformation and civil rights.

Medical Misinformation Surrounding Gender Affirming Care: The Repercussions for the Medical System

Abstract

In the past 10 years medicine known as gender affirming care has come under fire in media and political outlets. HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy), a common form of gender affirming care, has become the target of widespread medical misinformation. The increased medical misinformation has led to undermining of the medical community. Understanding how medical misinformation surrounding gender affirming care has negatively affected the public perception of the medical community can help inform the falling trust in doctors.
For this project, I examined reports and documents on gender affirming care, and the process for transgender individuals. I then applied my research on how HRT and broadly gender affirming care works to identify medical reports spreading incorrect information. I traced back claims spread in these documents to official government reports, such as executive order “PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM CHEMICAL AND SURGICAL MUTILATION.”
In recent years trust in the medical industry has fallen significantly. While it is hard to directly link one topic to this loss of trust, I propose that the misinformation surrounding gender affirming care contributes to this metric. To continue this research, I believe surveying patients, and residents in the United States could help paint a better picture of how much medical misinformation surrounding gender affirming care has contributed to this.
My research suggests a possible connection between increased medical mistrust, and medical misinformation surrounding gender affirming care.

Keywords: History, Medicine, Gender-Affirming-Care