#palko

Artfight revenge and friendly fire for @moki-the-lettuce PALKO BABY

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Transfeminines (Transfeminiinit ry), a Finnish human rights organisation for trans women and transfeminine people, stated (text in Finnish only) that the expertise of general practitioners regarding the treatment of transgender people has previously been found extremely lacking in places. Additionally, Transfeminines notes that local health care doctors’ attitudes towards gender diverse people varies regionally and that an increased reliance on local health care centres for treatment would increase these regional disparities.

If accessing treatment at a gender identity clinic would require the patient to undergo a course of treatment under one’s own municipal health care services (instead of GICs), beginning actual treatment would be significantly delayed. One of the criteria for the commencement of medical treatment in Palko’s proposal is that gender dysphoria would need to have lasted for at least two years, while according to the American Psychiatric Association the diagnostic criteria would be met with just six months of symptoms. Palko’s proposal does not offer clarification as to why it deviates from what is common practice in many other countries by instituting a waiting time that is longer than recommended by international guidelines.

Palko’s proposal would not widen the range of treatments available to non-binary people. The justification given for this is that according to Palko, there is not enough reliable research data on the subject. Thus, the only medical treatments available to non-binary people are hormone therapy and chest reconstruction surgery, the latter of which is available only to those assigned female at birth. Palko additionally offers facial hair removal treatment and voice therapy to “individual patients”. WPATH however deems genital surgery a necessary method of alleviating gender dysphoria in some patients and does not restrict this to binary transgender people.

Palko thus demonstrates a complete ignorance as to why non-binary people would require treatment for their gender dysphoria. However, Palko also does not attempt to justify why non-binary patients would not require treatment or benefit from it just as much as binary transgender people (that is, those who are either men or women) who are receiving treatment.

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Furthermore, WPATH emphasises that the very purpose of the treatment of transgender individuals is to alleviate gender dysphoria and suggests the model of Informed Consent as a possible treatment option. With Informed Consent, the patient is allowed to decide for themselves what type of treatments they want to undergo, and the care team’s role is to offer comprehensive information about the nature of their effects, both beneficial and adverse. Palko’s proposal however does not fall in line with this model, instead relying on an outdated diagnostic model where the amount of available treatments would still be dictated from above regardless of the patient’s wishes.

Here’s part of a good article with information on the new 2020 guidelines for trans healthcare in Finland.

kehraaja (.) com/proposed-guidelines-for-treatments-available-to-transgender-people-in-finland-face-criticism/

Mikuláš Palko (Slovak, born 1941)

Raining II, 1972

Poslední dva roky si držím školu, tři zaměstnání a práci v neziskovce. Je to často vyčerpávající a energie mě postupem času opouští. Jediné, co ráno stihnu - je sprcha. 

Následujících 30 dní věnuji každé ráno čtvrthodinové meditaci a začnu pravidelně snídat. Sebere mi to sice půl hodiny spánku, ale věřím, že budu schopen fungovat efektivněji, než nyní. 

Ze svého života vyškrtnu striktně veškerý alkohol, protože i jen jedna sklenice vína večer není to pravé pro dobití energie.