Trans men should be included in questions about cervical cancer – it can affect anyone with a cervix (Picture: Metro.o.uk)

This week marks Cervical Cancer Prevention week, a noble cause aimed at raising awareness of a condition that claims the lives of two people every day.

Surely I mean two women, right?

Well, no. Not entirely.

Anyone who has a cervix can get cervical cancer and there is a whole section of people being left out of this discussion – trans men.


While there is no doubt that the large majority of people losing their lives to this disease are women, trans men account for a portion of those deaths too.

That shouldn’t be ignored.

Contrary to popular myth, not all trans people undergo lower surgery.



In fact, more opt for no surgery due a variety of factors that range from the expense (although not if you are in the UK, where it is available on the NHS) to personal preference.

At present on the NHS, if you are a transgender man who is still registered with his GP as female you will be invited for screenings at the regularly mandated intervals.

If you asked your GP surgery to change your registered gender, however, you won’t – even if you are still in possession of a fully functioning cervix.

For many trans people, our genitals are a huge source of distress.

We struggle to interact with them when we are alone and find just the idea of getting our bits out for someone to poke around in distressing.

Given that many Cis (cisgender, a term for people whose gender identity is the same as the sex they were assigned with at birth) women, who have no problems with their own genitals, report a similar distress when having to go for a smear test, for trans men, it’s doubly-difficult.

Smear tests can be especially difficult for trans men

Public attitudes towards trans people have only recently been surveyed in the UK (Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

I had all my bits whipped out just over a year ago, but prior to that I actively ignored the repeated calls from my surgery to go for a smear.

I just couldn’t bring myself to make that appointment.

While I didn’t have any feeling that my GP’s surgery would treat me in a way that would increase my discomfort, there is no doubt that for a lot of trans people the way they are treated by some medical professionals can be distressing.

As a trans guy before lower surgery, it’s also very easy to forget about the genital configuration you have until you need to interact with it.

This also makes remembering to make an appointment difficult because, if you don’t remember you have those bits, you don’t think about getting them checked out.

Although there hasn’t been enough research to tell if trans men who take testosterone are at higher risk of cancers found in those born with female genitals, the clinic I attended during my transition warned of an increase in the risk of getting cervical cancer.



They advised a full hysterectomy within the first five years of being on testosterone to mitigate this risk.

It seems that doctors now, however, are starting to realise that this advice is based on misinformation handed down over the years.

But increased risk or not, the fact remains that if you have a cervix you can get cervical cancer, no matter what’s going on with the rest of you.

There is limited data on how many people identify as trans masculine in the UK, so it’s hard to know how many people this issue affects.

The British Social Attitudes survey first published research into public opinions of trans people in 2017, if you want a sense of how clued up we are as a society when it comes to trans issues.

Trans men are often the forgotten half of the transgender story, and even within the LGBTQ+ world they can be marginalised, ignored and forced to stand in the shadows, unheard.

But this isn’t about politics, this is about life and death, treatment and fear, and we must find a way to make trans men who still have a cervix feel compelled enough to push past their discomfort for the sake of their own wellbeing.

That starts with making us feel included in campaigns aimed at raising awareness of an issue that affects us too.

MORE: What’s it really like to transition from female to male: 4 things they don’t tell you

MORE: Why coming out as trans doesn’t make me brave


MORE: Tales from a trans guy: My first time in a men’s locker room

MORE: 5 transgender myths you’ll hear and why you shouldn’t believe them

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