Alex, one of the things I like to talk through with new patients is preventive cancer screenings. Since you are only 27, there aren’t many that we need to consider yet. Still, I think it would be valuable for us to discuss what screenings might be a good idea now, and if there are others to consider in the future. Does that sound okay?

Great. Cancers are often specific to particular body parts. I would like to ask a few questions to help us identify which body parts we should consider together. Is that okay with you?

Thank you. If at any point I use a word that is different from the one you use for your body, please correct me. What term do you use to describe your gender? And what sex were you assigned at birth?

Have you undergone any gender-affirming care, including surgeries and/or hormone therapy?

Thank you for being willing to share all this, Alex. Based on what you have said, I think it makes sense for us to discuss screenings for cervical cancer and breast cancer. Does that sound reasonable to you?

Chest cancer – got it. So, starting with chest cancer, people typically don’t start getting screened for that until they are 40 years old. And your risk is reduced based on having top surgery. That said, your surgeon may have left some tissue to help provide the new shape of your chest. It means that you have a lower level of risk, don’t meet criteria for the standard screening guidelines, but some monitoring might still be called for. Let me do a bit of research when we are done here, and I can send you the most up to date guidance.

The screening that we probably do want to consider together is a screening for cervical cancer. Guidelines recommend that, starting at age 21, individuals get screened for that every three years using what’s known as a Pap test.