What The Heck Is A GTA?
The acronym GTA stands for Gynecological Teaching Associate.
GTAs guide medical learners through the process of performing annual breast and pelvic exams utilizing the GTA’s own anatomy.
Acting both as “patient” and as instructor, GTAs teach medical students the technical skills of the exam as well as providing a new paradigm for patient communication.
We teach learners how to assess lymph nodes, palpate breast tissue, insert a speculum, perform a bi-manual exam.
More importantly, we talk about how to educate the patient. How to put the patient in charge of their health and decision making.
Each GTA comes into the work with their own previous experience and knowledge to share. While going through the training required for the job, I was able to put words to the physical and emotional moments of discomfort that I had experienced during pelvic exams.
While working through my first practice exam with my class of learners, my thoughts came into clarity. I was asked for my pronouns (they/them) for the first time and realized I had been misgendered by every gynecologist I had ever seen.
I held a mirror and was informed by my instructor about the makeup of my particular breast tissue. I realized that so much of what had caused me unspoken anxiety (is that a lump?!?) were healthy and normal features of my own anatomy.
“That’s the end of your ribcage.”
“Those are milk ducts.”
“Those are fibrocystic changes.”
I thought that becoming deeply aware of the parts of my body most tied up in our understanding of gender would give me a sense of dysphoria; inextricably tied to my breasts and vulva.
What I learned was that my breasts and vulva were mine alone. They didn’t belong to an unspecified “female” body. They belonged to me.
Hopefully, I’m teaching future doctors to give their patients that experience.
