Have you attended one of our free monthly Choice Words webinars? This blog is an extension of that series. Choice Words started as a way for us to provide free educational content in a welcoming, laid-back format. We’ll continue that goal here with articles spanning both silly and serious topics in the world of sex education and reproductive health.
In our first post, we want to highlight an important topic: Gender Affirming Care. Planned Parenthood has been serving transgender and non-binary patients for regular and routine reproductive health care for decades. In late 2020, we stepped up our services to begin offering specialized care: Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy.
We believe that everyone deserves high-quality, affordable health care and accurate, nonjudgmental sexual health information, no matter who they are or where they live. We know there is still a long way to go to extend equitable access to health care to all in our southwest Ohio community. This is especially true for those who are transgender, non-binary, and other gender identities outside of the binary, who all too often have limited access to needed health care services.
In southwest Ohio, there were limited options for folks to get hormone therapy services. By adding this service at our locations in Cincinnati, Hamilton, Dayton and Springfield, we hope to ease the burden patients face in trying to access this care. Learn more about what we offer at Planned Parenthood.
This month’s Choice Words event on February 24th will feature an in-depth discussion on this new service, what it means and why it is important
Meet our Speakers, who are making this month’s session possible!
Dr. Heather Stewart, Physician at Dayton Children’s Hospital and Professor at Wright State University
Heather Stewart, MD, FAAP is the Chief of the Division of Adolescent Young Adult Medicine at Dayton Children’s Hospital and Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. She completed her fellowship in Adolescent Medicine at San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium in Texas during her 12 year active duty tenure in the United States Air Force. Dr. Stewart continues to serve in the Indiana Air National Guard.
Dr. Stewart has presented numerous lectures on LGBTQ+ health care delivery and improving medical knowledge for practitioners in pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, internal medicine, psychiatry, psychology, hospital and school nursing, and students of medicine and nursing. Dr. Stewart is a community partner on the Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County LGBTQ Health Alliance and a Youth Action Team member. She collaborates several times a year with medical students through Wright State University School of Medicine, Boonshoft PRIDE to provide additional educational opportunities on LGBTQ+ topics for doctors-in-training. She is an active member of PFLAG Dayton and the 2018 Elaine Fultz Community Award honoree. Dr. Stewart serves as a Board Member for the Gatlyn Dame Group, a transgender and ally group, providing community support and fellowship in the Dayton area. Dr. Stewart received the 2019 Greater Dayton LGBTQ Her/History Rubi Award for Ally Activism.
Andie Hock, Trans Activist
Andie Hock (she/her) is a transgender woman and a veteran with 10 years active duty. After separation, she watched her life fall apart due to depression caused by gender dysphoria. This culminated in a period of homelessness, after which, with the help of medical and mental health services at the Dayton VA, she transitioned and put her life back together.
Andie is a member of the Dayton and Montgomery County Public Health community alliance for LGBTQ health, where she focuses on topics related to aging and the transgender experience. She is active in the local PFLAG chapter and serves as Support Chairperson and facilitator for the peer support group at PFLAG meetings. She is active in the Gatlyn Dame transgender support group and several community planning groups and committees, including the advisory committee for Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio's gender-affirming care program. She is also very active in Center for Spiritual Living Greater Dayton, an LGBTQ - and trans-affirming spiritual community. Andie sees the trans journey as an experience centered around authenticity and showing up as our true selves.
Kersha Deibel, President & CEO, Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio
Kersha Deibel, MPH, MSW is the President & CEO of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region. Prior to joining the southwest Ohio team, Kersha spent over eight years leading and organizing with Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund in Washington, DC. There, she led the team to run winning electoral campaigns that centered the lived experience of BIPOC communities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, young people, and patient advocates at the local, state, and federal levels. She’s served, in the past, as the President of the DC Abortion Fund. Currently, she serves on the Board of Directors for the National Abortion Federation and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Kersha’s reproductive health and rights foundation was built while working in a Planned Parenthood St. Louis health center as a Patient Educator, where she interviewed patients and provided counseling of health care options.
No stranger to southwest Ohio, Deibel attended the University of Cincinnati and became a Planned Parenthood patient for the first time in the Planned Parenthood health center where she now works to provide, protect, and expand care for the 20,000 patients that walk through the doors. Her experience is enhanced by her Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Cincinnati and a Master of Public Health and Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis, MO.
Kersha enjoys skiing, curvy girl yoga, and traveling the world to indulge in excellent food with her wife, Latoya.
Tags:
health,
ChoiceWords,
GenderAffirmingCare
