Atendimento em saúde: Perspectivas de profissionais da saúde e de usuários transexuais de um hospital universitário

Abstract

The mechanism of cissexuality imposes regulatory practices targeted at the coherence among sex (biology), gender identity and heterosexual orientation. Accordingly, transsexuality (non adequacy between gender attributed at birth and gender identity) emerges as a reaction to the cissexual binarism of sex/gender (male/female; men/women) and, therefore, it is placed at the margins of society, becoming a target of interventions intended to regulate it. One of the main struggles of transsexual activisms is the respect for the self-attribution of gender (identity) and the recognition of the social name. This dissertation consisted of two exploratory and qualitative cross-sectional studies. Study 1 aimed to understand how the professionals of a multidisciplinary health team define the provision of services to transsexuals. Study 2 aimed to understand the expectations and desires of the transsexuals served by this team of health professionals. In both studies, we employed semi-structured interviews, fully and literally audio-recorded and transcribed, whose data were organized from a Thematic Content Analysis with the help of WebQDA software, in order to prepare them for the coding stage. The interpretation of the data was held based on the theoretical assumptions of Judith Butler’s Performativity (Theory). In Study 1, we interviewed six professionals of the multidisciplinary team of one hospital; and in the second study, nine users of the same service took part of the interviews. The main results of Study 1 highlighted: the difficulty of understanding transsexuality as a non-pathologized identity experience; the current team structure is considered satisfactory, but the flow of services is considered insufficient; and there are few opportunities for discussion among team members. The main results of Study 2 highlighted: the understanding of transsexuality as an identity experience discordant with the biological body; the search for body modifications: insufficiencies and lack of information for access and permanence in health services; problems in organizing services, such as discriminations of health professionals that cause impacts on access, adherence and permanence in treatments. We should emphasize that the participants of both studies made references to the insufficient structure in the hospital organization targeted at the care of the transsexuals, causing different kinds of effects. In conclusion, the results of the studies may contribute to reflections on practices that do not reproduce gender stereotypes.