Celebrating Pride: OBGYN physician dedicates career to creating ‘beacon of inclusivity’ in healthcare for LGBTQ+ community

By Isabel Terrell 

When people think OBGYN, they might think about things like reproductive health, delivering babies, and lower body checkups of all kinds.

That’s part of the job, says Dr. Helena Frecker, Obstetrician and Gynecologist (OBGYN). But it’s also about ensuring that all individuals, including members of the LGBTQ+ and gender diverse community, feel included and safe in their care.

“My ideal is for a transgender person, or anyone who doesn’t identify with binary gender, to arrive at our hospital and to feel safe throughout the entire process,” she said.

Prior to her start at Michael Garron Hospital, Toronto East Health Network (MGH) in 2016, Dr. Frecker “made it her business” to learn about the varying healthcare needs of trans and gender diverse individuals.

Dr. Frecker did an observership at the Gender Reassignment Surgery Montreal Clinic, one of the only locations in Canada that performs Transition Related Surgery (TRS.) She also has education in minimally invasive surgery, and has conducted research into the healthcare needs of trans individuals. She’s now heavily involved in gender-inclusive policy making and often receives requests to educate other healthcare teams across Canada.

“I wanted to gain the skills to not only follow trans individuals and help them in my practice, but also educate my colleagues  on the healthcare needs of this community,” says Dr. Frecker.

Dr. Frecker performs TRS in the form of hysterectomies at MGH, but there are many other pieces to being an ally to trans individuals in the medical field. She often sees patients from across the province who travel to her for post operation check ups. She also sees patients referred to her from other doctors who have less experience and comfort with providing care for trans individuals.

“Education is so important,” says Dr. Frecker. “The more people who know and understand the healthcare needs of trans individuals, the better care they will experience.”

Binary gendered administrative forms and language surrounding parenthood are just a few of the barriers that patients encounter as they navigate the clinical setting. With so many people involved in someone’s care, Dr. Frecker wants to make sure everyone involved in healthcare teams understands the varying needs to LGBTQ+ and trans individuals.

 “One negative experience can create an entire feeling of lack of safety in an environment,” she says. 

Creating a 'beacon of inclusivity' 

At MGH, Dr. Frecker is part of the LGBTQ+ working group in the Family Birthing Centre. Together with her team, she is trying to create policy and increase training to make the labour and delivery unit as gender inclusive as possible.

“For such a gendered field, that’s actually a little bit challenging, but we’re striving to make MGH a beacon of inclusivity for this community,” she said. 

Dr. Frecker is also of three partners at Open Arms OB/GYN at Pape Avenue and Danforth Road, a clinic dedicated to “providing equal access to compassionate, patient-centered and evidence-based gynecologic, reproductive, and sexual health care.”

In her practice, Dr. Frecker makes a conscious effort to ensure the office environment feels safe for trans people, particularly trans men, by showing support through safe space signage, and displaying educational pamphlets that are relevant to specific needs of the LGBTQ+ community. She also sometimes books appointments for trans male patients at the very end of the day to avoid full waiting rooms of cis-women in an effort to make each gynecological appointment as comfortable as possible.

Dr. Frecker’s next big project is to work towards creating more diverse and inclusive educational resources for perinatal health, to make access to information surrounding childbirth more accessible.

She has some sage advice for those in the medical field who aren’t as well-versed in gender diverse care, but want to do their part.

“I think that the best thing that anybody can do, even if you have zero comfort with terminology or language, is that you just ask somebody how they would like to be addressed, and ask them how they would like their care and their bodies referred to, and just honour what they say.”