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Sarah Barringer , University of Iowa. As of , 26 U. These actions foreground the upcoming Supreme Court case of U. Skrmetti which promises to shape the future of gender-affirming health care in the U. History, however, shows that withholding health care does not make transgender people go away. Scholarship of medieval literature and historical records reveals how transgender people transitioned even without a robust medical system — instead, they changed their clothes, name and social position.
Surgery was not a widespread practice in the medieval period. While it gained some traction in the s, surgery was limited to southern France and northern Italy.
Even there, surgery was dangerous and the risk of infection high. But amputating functioning limbs was nearly always a form of punishment. Medieval people, including surgeons and patients, likely would not have had positive views of surgery that involved removing working body parts.
