NEW SURVEY – Usefulness of the WPATH Standards of Care

[JesusA]

NEW SURVEY – Usefulness of the WPATH Standards of Care

The Institutional Review Board at the University of Hawaii finally approved our new survey. Our goal is an article in a medical journal consisting of brief biographical accounts of the use of the WPATH Standards of Care. Should you be willing to participate, your answers will be completely anonymous.

The first (far too long) item below is the required disclaimer from the Institutional Review Board. That is followed by all the questions that will be asked on the survey so that you can decide whether or not to participate. Finally, there is a link to the survey itself.

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Aloha! You are being asked to participate in a research study conducted by Jamie Agapoff, M.D. from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Hawai‘i.

What am I being asked to do?

If you participate in this project, you will be asked to fill out a survey.

Taking part in this study is your choice.

Your participation in this project is completely voluntary. You may stop participating at any time. If you stop being in the study, there will be no penalty or loss to you.

Why is this study being done?

The purpose of my project is to determine whether the WPATH SOC8 Eunuch Chapter has been helpful for the purpose of accessing gender affirming care including medical and surgical interventions. I am asking you to participate because there have been no studies evaluating the utilization of the WPATH SOC8 Eunuch Chapter for the purpose of accessing gender affirming medical and surgical interventions.

What will happen if I decide to take part in this study?
The survey will consist of 20 questions: 8 background and 12 short answers. It will take approximately 30 minutes. The survey questions will include questions like, “At about what age did you first think that you MIGHT want an orchiectomy?” and “Did you use the SoC8 to persuade a professional to help?”

What are the risks and benefits of taking part in this study?

I believe there is little risk to you for participating in this research project. You may become stressed or uncomfortable answering any of the survey questions. If you do become stressed or uncomfortable, you can skip the question or take a break. You can also stop taking the survey or you can withdraw from the project altogether.

There will be no direct benefit to you for participating in this survey. The results of this project may help identify ongoing barriers Eunuch identified individuals face in their efforts to access medical and surgical interventions. The results will also inform future guidelines to better serve the Eunuch community.

Results of Research:

Any publications associated with this work will be made available on eunuch.co

Confidentiality and Privacy:

I will not ask you for any personal information, such as your name or address. Please do not include any personal information in your survey responses. I will keep all study data secure on a password protected computer. Other agencies that have legal permission have the right to review research records. The University of Hawai'i Human Studies Program has the right to review research records for this study.

Compensation:

No compensation will be provided for your time and effort in participating in this research project.

Future Research Studies:

There will be no identifiers collected. The data may be used for future research studies or distributed to another investigator for future research studies and we will not seek further approval from you for these future studies.

Questions: If you have any questions about this study, please call or email me at [email protected]
You may contact the UH Human Studies Program at 808.956.5007 or [email protected] to discuss problems, concerns and questions, obtain information, or offer input with an informed individual who is unaffiliated with the specific research protocol. Please visit http://go.hawaii.edu/jRd for more information on your rights as a research participant.

Going to the first page of the survey implies your consent to participate in this study.
Please save a copy of this page for your reference.
Mahalo!

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SoC8 Survey

The goal of this survey is an article for a medical journal consisting of five or six brief biographical accounts of the successful use of the WPATH Standards of Care, version 8 to obtain the desired surgery, whether it be an orchiectomy, penectomy, or full nullification. All the biographies will be completely anonymous with the participants identified only by initials and age (e.g., AB, age 46). We expect that the article will be published in the International Journal of Transgender Health, which is read by all members of WPATH as well as by individual subscribers and which is sent to major libraries.

Since we are looking for quotations to use, many of the questions will require a brief written response, anything from a single sentence to a brief paragraph. Here are the questions so that you can decide whether or not to participate and you can think about the questions before you begin.

First, a few background questions:

1. What initials would you prefer that we use?
2. What is your current age.
3. How would you describe your race or ethnicity?
4. In what setting did you principally grow up? (e.g., big city, small town, farm, etc.)
5. In what country or state are you currently living?
6. What sex is listed on your birth certificate?
7. What gender do you identify as?
8. What was the highest level of schooling that you completed?

Next, a few short answer questions:

9. At about what age did you first think that you MIGHT want to be castrated?
10. Did you then play at castration? How?
11. At what age did you DECIDE that you actually wanted to be castrated?
12. If you considered any DIY actions, what did you consider?
13. What, if any, DIY actions did you actually try?
14. At what age did you begin to seek professional help to obtain castration?
15. What actions did you take to seek professional help?
16. Did you use the SoC8 to persuade a professional to help?
17. How did you use it and how did it help?
18. At what age did you obtain your surgery?
19. How satisfied are you with your castration?
20. Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?

Lastly, a few multiple-choice questions with the following choices: Strongly Disagree, Somewhat Disagree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Somewhat Agree, or Strongly Agree

21. My outward appearance represents my gender identity.
22. I experience a sense of unity between my gender identity and my body.
23. My physical appearance adequately expresses my gender identity.
24. I am generally comfortable with how others perceive my gender identity when they look at me.
25. My physical body represents my gender identity.
26. The way my body currently looks does not represent my gender identity.
27. I am happy with the way my appearance expresses my gender identity.
28. I do not feel that my appearance reflects my gender identity.
29. I feel that my mind and body are consistent with one another.
30. I am not proud of my gender identity.
31. I am happy that I have the gender identity that I do
32. I have accepted my gender identity.

Click on the link below to go to the actual survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2FR3VPF

[WheelyFixed]

This is a VERY IMPORTANT survey, I can't encourage people to take the time to do it enough... (IMHO it is FAR more important to us as eunuchs or potential ones than the Gender Census)

The professor running the survey is a very good person, and has a lengthy experience w/ the eunuch community... She is trans and runs a very good set of You-tube videos that is quite positive. JesusA told me a bit about her back story which I don't feel comfortable sharing w/o permission, but will suffice to say that she was active on one of the early Eunuch Archive sites at an age FAR younger than we would allow today if we knew it...

WheelyFixed

[JesusA]

I want to thank those EA members who have taken the time to complete the survey. Your information is valuable. We still need at least a couple responses from members who used the WPATH Standards of Care in their search for proper treatment, whether for surgery or for other care. We want to have a strong article to convince practitioners that eunuchs are real and important.
Jamie Agapoff (U of Hawaii), Erik Wibowo (U of Sydney), and I (long retired old geezer) look forward to learning more about your experiences.