Gender-Affirming Surgeons’ Attitudes toward Social Media Communication with Patients

Abstract

Online spaces are increasingly important for transgender people who are considering gender-affirming surgeries to find information, ask questions, and communicate with each other. While many surgical resources are community-generated, the onus of providing medical information about surgery should be on the surgical team. We sought to understand the potential for an online space for surgeon and community engagement. We assessed gender-affirming surgeon perspectives on online communication and communities by conducting a survey (N = 55) to understand current social media use and gauge surgeons’ opinions related to participating in online spaces. We found that gender-affirming surgeons were not generally in support of a new online platform for patient-surgeon communication, with 67% responding that a new platform was not needed. Participants identified potential negative implications including risks to patients (e.g., misinformation, liability, and platform use in emergency situations) and risks to surgeons (e.g., the additional burden that the platform would place on their already-limited time, changes to surgeon culture, and safety concerns related to online harassment). Potential positive implications include opportunities to improve patient education and enhance patient care. Our results establish empirical understanding of social media use patterns among gender-affirming surgeons and may inform the design of resources to enable trans patients to receive the information and care that they require when considering and undergoing gender-affirming surgery.