Transsexual Pilots Cleared for Take Off

Nice. Very nice. Made me smile big time.

 

Go Ms. Waterhouse!!!!

 

As a professional pilot, I'm just going to throw this out there, and I expect attacks for it, but...

As a pilot, it is critical that you be medically fit to fly. Any pilot who begins taking any medication for any reason is required by law to be grounded until they can demonstrate that the medication does not have any adverse effects on them. Every aspect of their physical and mental status comes under scrutiny. For example, if a pilot takes anti-depressants, they can be grounded for over a year and must undergo a battery of physiological tests before they can be cleared to fly again. I can't even take cold medication without visiting my flight surgeon to be cleared to fly.

From an aviation medicine point of view, it is perfectly valid to ground a pilot when they begin their transition, as the hormones they take can have physical and psychological effects that the individual may not be used to. They should however, be cleared to fly as soon as they begin a stable regime and become accustomed to the effects of the hormones.

I totally agree with this decision, as psychological testing is unnecessary for this type of situation (and requiring it after the transition is in fact discriminatory), but it is my professional opinion that transgendered people, like all pilot, should be required to undergo a medical examination when they start hormones, to make sure that they are not experiencing any adverse medical effects that could compromise the safety of flight. Like I said before, if I'm prescribed a medication of any type, I am grounded for a few days, and then must visit the doctor again and he will clear me if I have no adverse side-effects.

 

Except the issue was that they were required to do it at ALL times, even years after they began hormone therapy, etc.

 

Agreed. I don't think that the policy itself was not grounded in trans-phobia, but simply a reaction to an unknown. Cases like this are pretty rare, and there is not a lot of aviation medicine science knowledge on it, they always err on the side of caution when dealing with special or rare cases. I'm glad they finally changed this policy though, sometimes it takes someone and their lawyer to push an old, irrelevant policy out.

 

You're not going to be attacked for it. This would be the same as starting any other medication. As far as a flight medical goes, if you were prescribed anything that could potentially affect mood, you're going to have a hard time.

Why this was required of people solely for being transgender I do not know, as there is no medically valid reason to do so. Under the current rules, they would have to waste time and money testing non-op and post-transition individuals for no good reason. Whoever came up with that rule is braindead.

 

isn't there a very high rate of depression and suicide among trans people? perhaps they implemented the testing in a misguided response to that information. i wouldn't necessarily ascribe an evil motive to the testing policy, though i agree that it was improperly discriminatory and had to go.