Experiences of transgender men in seeking gynecological and reproductive health care: a qualitative systematic review protocol.

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this review is to synthesize the existing qualitative literature examining the experiences of transgender men seeking gynecological and reproductive health in all healthcare settings globally.

Introduction: Existing literature clearly identifies that fear of mistreatment and discrimination is an ongoing concern among the transgender community. Transgender men face challenges and barriers when seeking health care. When female reproductive organs and genitalia are retained, transgender men will need to access reproductive and gynecological health care and screening examinations. Synthesis of the literature examining those experiences is the focus of this review.

Inclusion criteria: This review will consider all qualitative studies that include natal females who identify as transgender, genderqueer, non-binary or gender expressive and their experiences when seeking and receiving care related to gynecological or reproductive care. All studies on this type of care in any setting will be included.

Methods: CINAHL Complete and PubMed will be searched and eligible studies published in English after 1979 will be included. Titles and abstracts will be screened by two independent reviewers for assessment against the inclusion criteria. The full text of articles will be assessed for inclusion and all potential articles will then be appraised for methodological quality using standardized critical appraisal tools. Data will be extracted by two independent reviewers. Findings will be pooled with a meta-aggregation approach to categorize findings. These synthesized findings will be graded to establish confidence in the output.