Medearis Lecture / Pediatric Grand Rounds
Sahar Sadjadi, PhD
Assistant Professor of Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Sociology
Amherst College
Abstract: In recent years, the field of clinical management of gender in children has rapidly expanded and new treatments for gender-variant children have emerged. This lecture explored the ethical dilemmas surrounding the treatment of gender dysphoria in children. How did these clinical practices develop and how did children’s gender become a matter of medical attention? What are the implications of the existing clinical paradigms for the well-being and health of children brought under the clinical purview? What scientific and cultural notions of gender, identity and childhood shape these practices? To answer these questions, Dr. Sadjadi situated children’s gender discontent in the larger socio-cultural context of their lives, and argued that broadening the analytical lens to include all children, not only gender non-conforming and transgender children, reveals a more complex understanding of the ethical issues facing clinicians.
Location and Address
Rangos Conference Center, Children's Hospital of UPMC