The Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) has published two groundbreaking booklets on sexual health for trans people. Each one contains basic – yet valuable – information on trans bodies and health needs.

Each booklet tackles a whole bunch of common questions, such as: do post-op trans women still need prostate examinations? and: can trans guys get pregnant after going on T? There’s some trans specific information on HIV prevention, and also some more general health advice.

The language is broadly respectful and acknowledges the great range of trans identities. There isn’t as much of a binary division as might appear to be the case from the titles, with each booklet noting that the information contained within is also relevant to queer or non-binary individuals:

Words matter and in this introduction we are using the term ‘trans* women’ to indicate that this guide is not exclusive and is intended to speak in a  non-evaluative and non-judgemental way. It is aimed at people across the whole spectrum of trans* feminine-identified presentations and behaviours; by this we mean anyone on the gender variant spectrum who was labelled ‘male’ at birth and who identifies as female – including gender queer or otherwise non-binary people labelled ‘male’ at birth.

It’s really great that these booklets have been created – there’s a lot of confusion and misinformation about trans health needs, so this kind of intervention from a respected community organisation is really welcome.

The booklets are available online in PDF format:

Trans Women: Trans Health Matters

Transmen: Trans Health Matters

They’re also both available in physical form via mail order for the very reasonable price of 40p each (to cover postage costs).

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A note on the “space” issue

I’ve noticed a lot of questions in social networking spaces about the fact that there’s a space in “trans women” but not in “transmen”. People wonder why there is discrepancy between the two guides, and wonder if a mistake has been made.

A friend of mine was involved in the production of the guides and offered some explanation. Apparently each one was produced by THT with a great deal of input from two steering groups, one for each guide. The “trans women” group was very insistent on having a space between “trans” and “women”, presumably for political reasons. The “transmen” group didn’t want a space.

There will inevitably be arguments over this, and complaints sent to THT. Some favour the space because “trans” stands separately from one’s gender: e.g. I am a “trans woman” because I am trans and a woman. My womanhood is not defined by my transhood. Others favour not having a space because they argue that we should be proud of being trans, and that it is inevitably part of our gender.

We’re never all going to agree on this. I use “trans women” very deliberately within my writing because I broadly subscribe to the first argument, but I recognise that there are plenty of people who have good personal reasons for preferring “transwomen”.

THT aren’t going to please everyone. As such, I think it’s a pity that people are complaining to them about this, particularly as the language came from trans steering groups on this occasion. We should be all means continue to have these conversations about language, because language is important, but there are far more important things to campaign about than a space on a sexual health booklet.