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Trans and gender diverse people are globally recognised as being under-served in clinical services, with significant implications for their health. During a national reorientation of the Australian cervical screening programme – from Papanicolaou smears to human papillomavirus screening – we conducted interviews with 12 key informants in cancer policy, sexual and reproductive health and trans health advocacy to understand how trans people's needs and experiences were being accounted for and addressed in health policy and practice. Themes captured the complexities of increasing visibility for trans people, including men and non-binary people with a cervix. These complexities reflect the extensive system and cultural change required in asking policymakers and practitioners to think differently about who is at risk of a disease typically associated with cisgender women. Informants drew on the language of trauma to explain the resistance many trans people feel when engaging with clinical services, particularly relating to sexual and reproductive health. In doing so, they argued for increasing resources and processes to elicit trans people's willingness to put their trust in such services. Thinking critically about the relationship between the politics of trans visibilities, trauma and trust can support effective and inclusive approaches to transgender health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of a cancer diagnosis flows beyond the person, fundamentally shaping relationships with partners, family and friends. Living with cancer can change people’s needs considerably, often requiring additional care from loved ones, potentially disrupting existing relational expectations, capacities and dynamics. A relational ontological approach is needed to better understand how women’s cancer experiences are inter-subjectively shaped within relationships and by prevailing social scripts. Drawing on interviews with 81 women with cancer, we explore women’s accounts of living with cancer and their experience of ‘care’ within close relationships with others. The interviews revealed how women respond to their illness as an experience in relation to their (male) partners; how they navigate patterns of care in their lives; and how social scripts of gender, care and emotionality shape their experiences. This adds to the sociology of care, and the understanding of care as situated within gendered, relational and social expectations around illness, coping and caring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to examine how women construct their experiences of chemotherapy treatment for ovarian cancer. Through semistructured interviews, we explored the accounts of 18 Australian women about their experiences within a broader cultural imperative—or discourse—to “think positively.” By applying a critical realist lens to the analysis, we identified two discursive themes that shaped women’s accounts. The “feeling different and managing support” theme highlights the identity challenges women faced because of the lack of formal support for ovarian cancer. Conversely, the theme “women’s reconstructions of difficult experiences” illustrates the imperative for women to present a positive story as a way of restoring their position of a lucky and stoic survivor. Such speaking served to mask some of the underlying difficulties that were part of these women’s experiences. Health care professionals need to consider looking for the hidden stories of vulnerability that lie beneath the triumphant ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance, the continued misuse of antibiotics is perplexing, particularly despite persistent attempts to curb usage. This issue extends beyond traditional “wastage” areas, of livestock and community medicine, to hospitals, raising questions regarding the current principles of hospital practice. Drawing on five focus group discussions, we explore why doctors act in the ways they do regarding antibiotics, revealing how practices are done, justified, and perpetuated. We posit that antibiotic misuse is better understood in terms of social relations of fear, survival and a desire for autonomy; everyday rituals, performances, and forms of professional etiquette; and the mixed obligations evident in the health sector. Moreover, that antibiotic misuse presents as a case study of the broader problematic of defensive medicine. We argue that the impending global antibiotic crisis will involve understanding how medicine is built around certain logics of practice, many that are highly resistant to change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiences of cancer are enmeshed with cultural understandings and social discourses around responsibility and causation. A cancer diagnosis can raise questions about its causation -- including the role of the individual -- whereas the disease and its treatment provide various social markers of illness. We present a sociological study of 81 women's accounts of living with cancer, with a focus on how women interpret their illness, in light of their interpersonal interactions and accounts of social relations. Our analysis reveals women's experiences of cancer diagnosis and treatment, the varied sociocultural meanings of cancer and the responses it elicits, the presence of moral assessments within everyday interactions, and the implications for the support and care they receive. We argue that the experience of cancer should be seen as intimately interwoven with its social reception and cultural sense-making practices, including normative constructs which promote ideas about (in)justice, responsibilization, and shame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]