Medical Care for Transgender Youth with Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy

09/07/21 • 73 min

For those of us advocating for access to necessary medical care for trans youth, recent legislation seeking to criminalize or prevent this gender-affirming care feels like a huge step back. Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy is working to gain that ground back again, and to promote greater understanding of and support for it.

Visiting us today is Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, who we lovingly call Dr. Jo. She’s the Medical Director of The Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Los Angeles Children's Hospital. She is also an Attending Physician, Investigator of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine and Behavioral Health, and Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics Keck School of Medicine of USC. Dr. Olsen-Kennedy is considered one of the leading experts in gender-affirming care.

With a patient load of over 700 transgender children, teens, and young adults and 16 years of experience in the field of gender-affirming medical care for trans youth, Dr. Olsen-Kennedy has answers to our most pressing questions related to gender dysphoria, treatment options, and much more.

In this episode, we talk about Dr. Jo's work at The Center and how she helps trans kids' parents, caretakers, and trans adults. We also discuss the barriers that prevent trans people from accessing quality medical care services and the effects of the criminalization of gender-affirming care for transgender adolescents on the LGBTQ+ community, their parents, and the professionals involved.

Dr. Jo kindly shares her position on the use of GnRH Analogs, and she invites us to reflect on why we have different responses when it is used on trans youth. We talk about the central role of having key conversations as the foundation of any medical care, and much more.

Some Questions We Ask:

What would you say to young people who cannot access the level of care that you provide? What would you say are the most significant barriers? (7:39)
As someone who's doing this work and watching it become illegal in other states throughout the country, do you feel like you're on a battlefield? (18:56)
What are the big questions people have about hormones, and how do you answer them? (44:44)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

Dr. Jo talks about the only field of medicine designed to make all the cisgender people around the patient comfortable (14:01)
Gender is a color wheel; male and female are merely reference points (15:52)
The difference between doing the work and defending the work. People deserve authenticity (21:16)
The importance of bilateral information (37:59)
One of Dr. Jo's biggest lessons learned in her profession (1:03:27)

Resources:

Los Angeles Children's Hospital website

Connect with Johanna:

Dr. Jo's profile - Los Angeles Children's Hospital website
Email: [email protected]

Connect with Jackie and Bridget:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some Questions We Ask:

What would you say to young people who cannot access the level of care that you provide? What would you say are the most significant barriers? (7:39)
As someone who's doing this work and watching it become illegal in other states throughout the country, do you feel like you're on a battlefield? (18:56)
What are the big questions people have about hormones, and how do you answer them? (44:44)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

Dr. Jo talks about the only field of medicine designed to make all the cisgender people around the patient comfortable (14:01)
Gender is a color wheel; male and female are merely reference points (15:52)
The difference between doing the work and defending the work. People deserve authenticity (21:16)
The importance of bilateral information (37:59)
One of Dr. Jo's biggest lessons learned in her profession (1:03:27)

Resources:

Los Angeles Children's Hospital website

Connect with Johanna:

Dr. Jo's profile - Los Angeles Children's Hospital website
Email: [email protected]

Connect with Jackie and Bridget:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Mental Health Support for Transgender Youth with Aydin Olson-Kennedy

Going through his transition in a rural area of Northern California was tough and lonely for Aydin. Although he assumes there were other trans people in the area, he never got in touch with them. On the other hand, he would drive three and a half hours each way to see a gender specialist on weekends. These difficulties created a strong desire in him to increase accessibility to mental health services for transgender people, which he considers crucial. This marked the beginning of a journey of advocating for the transgender community and supporting them as a counselor, trainer, and educator.

Aydin Olson-Kennedy is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the former Executive Director of the Los Angeles Gender Center. In his practice, Aydin has been serving teenagers and adult transgender and nonbinary individuals and their families for over ten years. He is considered a national expert, and he has trained thousands of professionals and families in the US and is a dedicated volunteer professional for the Los Angeles based support group Transforming Family, which Bridget is a parent volunteer for.

In this episode, we had an enlightening conversation where Aydin shared his transition journey, and the difficulties he faced before and after coming out as a transgender man. We discussed important recommendations for how parents can support and communicate effectively with their transgender and nonbinary children. We explored misgendering people: why it happens and tips for parents, caregivers, and others to prevent it. Aydin also offered some poignant insights on the damage that can be caused by parents expressing their own distress with their kids, and much more.

Some Questions We Ask:

Often, you are doing a lot of work to convince cis people to accept trans people. What is that like for you on a personal level emotionally? (7:47)
What are some of the top things you can say to parents whose kids just came out as transgender? (17:50)
How would you say that the desire to have control over your kid plays into accepting their transition? (22:47)
How do you help people avoid misgendering? Because it can be so triggering and painful to be misgendered. (43:03)

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

A bit of Aydin's journey into becoming a therapist for the LGBTQ community and an expert in the field (5:35)
Three things Aydin pays careful attention to in order to be sure he is not harming the parents or the transgender and nonbinary young people he serves (13:12)
Coming out is an invitation to people into a private space (19:09)
One of the main reasons why misgendering occurs (42:57)
The fear of some parents and caregivers about conversations about gender turning into the only topic of discussion (50:44)

Connect with Aydin:

LinkedIn
Aydin’s bio on the Los Angeles Gender Center website & link to email him

Connect with Jackie and Bridget:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Spreading Social-Emotional Awareness While Having Fun with @normalizers

For members of the LGBTQ+ community, finding a safe space where they can be themselves is as fundamental as it is hard to find. The possibility of being comfortable in their surroundings and expressing their thoughts and feelings without fear of being ridiculed or humiliated is often unavailable to underrepresented minorities. This is why the work of our guests, Monica and Ash, is so important! By creating a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community on TikTok, they are literally saving lives.

Monica, a former Sex Ed teacher, and her eldest Ash, a high-schooler who came out as a non-binary lesbian, have a TikTok profile, The Normalizers (@Monicatheteacher), with over 125 thousand followers and 6 million likes on their posts. They talk openly about sexual orientation, gender identity, pronouns, autism bullying, eating disorders, representation, and many other subjects. After starting over a couple of times and repurposing their content, they finally received the surprising yet well-deserved recognition that they now have. Their TikTok profile created a safe space for LGTBQ+ community members and their parents and allies, where everyone is free to express themselves and be who they are without any fear.

In this episode, our conversation revolves around Monica and Ash's evolution as influencers, and their relationship before and after Ash came out to their mom, Monica, first as a lesbian and later as non-binary. We discuss the importance of creating safe spaces at home and normalizing talking about sexual orientation and gender identity. Monica and Ash shared some of their experience with hateful comments online, how they deal with them, and what they believe social media companies could do about it.

Some Questions We Ask:

How did you go from having these conversations within your family and yourself to posting videos and sharing that publicly? (16:08)
What's it like to go upstream and create a safe place in this wild west of social media? How do you navigate that, and what do you think the companies can do better? (24:58)
What is your take on where we're headed as a country? Is this country ever going to be a safe place for queer people? (34:23)

In This Episode, You Will Learn: