Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) programs were vital for encouraging examinations and sharing the experiences of individuals who have faced prostate cancer.
However, Annie Brown, MD, said the prevalence of pink may make individuals forget that initiatives typically focus primarily on women cisgender individuals. Pink is becoming synonymous with the battle over cancer, the leading lethal non-skin melanoma among women in the U.S.
Breast Cancer Treatment For Transgender People
“That campaign and that gender-specific message are doing a bit of a disservice to our transgender patients,” Brown said. “Breast cancer also affects nonbinary patients, and there’s been criticism anyway about BCAM campaigns sexualizing breast cancer.”
Usually, when it comes to checking for breast cancer, experts focus on women’s health only, which is not right. Nowadays, even transgender people also have such issues. Recently on the BCAM program, this issue was discussed by experts where certain facts were discussed.
They have symptoms that are much different than those of females, and hence the experts must be a little extra alert while handling such patients. However, there is no specific program run for such patients in contrast to breast cancer for females.
According to Brown, based on the scant information provided, trans females on hormonal treatment had a higher risk of mammary cancers than cisgender men. She claims that trans guys have a greater base risk than both transgender women and cisgender males since they have been exposed to estrogen since conception, before possible hormone reduction medication.
“As a result, this population tends to suffer from psychological issues, low economic status, some substance abuse, so there are other issues that do increase their risk of developing cancer, including breast cancer; that is a tougher thing to address,” Brown said.
Brown stated that there is minimal evidence that trans females who were not on hormonal treatment require mammogram scans for breast cancer. She noted that for transgender females who had lived on estrogen medication for five years or greater and were 40 or older, the general guideline is the same as for cisgender females: yearly or biennial mammography.
Brown added that suggestions for transgender males differ based on the kinds of gender-affirming operations they’ve undergone. Although transgender guys who have undergone topping operations still have breasts & therefore at a greater danger than those who had a complete hysterectomy, mammograms could be painful or ineffective for such individuals.
“If that’s the case then we focus on educating patients that there is still breast tissue present and that self-exams and clinical exams are still important, especially focusing on those areas like the underarm and region behind the nipple,” Brown said.
“Some patients avoid certain medical settings because they are afraid of being misgendered or because they think they’ll be uncomfortable,” Brown said. “And so I think it’s important to have a safe pathway for patients.”
Brown explained that establishing an open workplace may be as easy as reducing the use of pink and female images and becoming less gender-specific when discussing breast and chest cancers, adding that cisgender males having particular hereditary characteristics are also in danger.
She believes that making mammography treatments available in a broader generalist healthcare setting will make transsexual people feel better at ease than needing to travel to a specialized female’s healthcare clinic for screenings. To minimize the inconvenience of a reception area, a transsexual participant’s primary care doctor can escort them to a screening mammogram following a routine visit when they are already in the office or recommend them to a portable mammogram machine.
“The more it gets normalized that we should be providing equal care and inclusive care to transgender patients then perhaps we can change things eventually,” she said.
