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You're listening to transm on 4zzz, amplifying the trans and gender non conforming voices of Brisbane and beyond. Hello. Hello. You're listening to transmission on 4ZZZ. Yeah, my name is EZ. I use HE, him pronouns.

My name is Ray. I use they, them, pronouns.

And how's your morning going, Ray?

It is good, is a little. I am honestly riveted to be on the radio again. However, 9am is not a time that I am usually enthused about. Yeah, I am here and I am trans and I am excited.

I was like when we got transmission and we got this time slot, I was like, trans people are not awake before 10. But that's fine. We got this.

We're really not. I don't know what it is. I think it's like we just need to just like hibernate a little bit in the morning.

Yeah. Especially when it's this chilly.

It's a little bit cold.

9 degrees when I woke up in Sunshine State of Brisbane. Yeah. Anyway, I'm glad you're here and I'm glad you're queer. So that's the main thing.

Thank you.

We're going to go through a couple of weeks in community events and news. First up, we've got Queer naidoc. So the Next Generation Strength, Vision and Legacy. On Saturday 5th July from 6pm at the Brisbane Powerhouse, we're inviting all of our LGBTQIA sister girls, brother boys, allies and fabulous mob to come together and celebrate the next generation Strength, vision, legacy. The deadly theme for this year's NAIDOC Week. Hosted by the iconic Ms. Elena, this explosive celebration brings together the best of black and queer artistry. Featuring a welcome to country with the powerhouse powerhouse vocals of Auntie dawn, special guest drag artist and DJ Sarah Lean. And jaw dropping performances from Fabulous Busybody, the Unstoppable Benny Hangslow and the divine Dexy Daydream. Plus more deadly artists to be revealed. This ain't just a party, it's a fabulous takeover. So yeah, there's food and drinks available for purchase on the night. Tickets are $30 for adults and 20 bucks for concessions. You should check that out on July 5th. Yeah. And we also have some other things from Shelf Lovers.

I hear we do.

So Shelf Lovers, one Second one second. I'm going to get you to hop over to this mic for me. Try that again.

Hello, that's. Sometimes you just have to transition between microphones in order to do a trans radio show. As I was saying before, Shelf Lovers who used to be in the amazing shop in Woolowin is having a pre transition sale. So they closed down recently and they are having a sale that will be both online as well as a pop up at Hayley's Cottage which is on Petrie Terrace. And that's on the 21st and 22nd of June from 10am till 4pm and you can also hop online at shop shelflovers.com for their online sale and they're transitioning to a new way of operating from the 1st of July so they want make sure that they get rid of any queer leftover stock. So if you're looking for some discounted queer books, gifts and geekery, then head to Hal's Cottage this weekend as well as go online to shop shelflovers.com Nice.

I miss Shelf Lovers. I'm so glad they're still doing things.

Me too. And I think that they're. I'm excited for them to transition to their. Their next stage. So we'll see what beautiful things are happening for them in the future. Yeah, lots of love and luck and queer joy to them.

Yes, I want more queer books so they'll be around, I'm sure.

We always want more queer books. We also have some news regarding the largest Trans survey. The 2022 U.S. transgender Survey conducted by Advocates for Trans Equality gathered responses from over 84,000 transge non binary and gender non conforming adults. Findings revealed that 9% of those who had transitioned reported reverting to living as their sex assigned at birth at some point. However, in nearly all cases, this decision was attributed to external pressures such as discrimination from family, friends or community rather than personal regret. Only 0.36%, 36% of all respondents cited the realisation that transitioning was not right for them as their reason for detransitioning. The survey also highlighted the positive impact of gender affirming care, with 98% of respondents who received hormone therapy and 97% who underwent gender affirming surgery reporting increased life satisfaction. These findings challenge narratives suggesting widespread transition regret, regret and underscore the importance of supporting environments and access to appropriate health care for transgender people. Additionally, the survey emphasised that familial support significantly influences the overall health and well being of trans people, particularly concerning mental health outcomes.

Yeah, so things we already knew. But nice to know that it's been solidified in a study with over 84,000 people.

Absolutely incredible amount of people. Yeah, yeah, I'm blown away. And also, yeah, it's one of those things where we knew this. But it's good to see it. It's good to see it in writing.

It is good to see it in writing. So good. If you actually want to check it all out, you can head to the Transmission Socials at Trans with a Z Radio and we'll put a link up there to the US Trans Survey. You can also just look up us trans survey.org and you can check it all out and you can read through everything. You can even download the health and wellbeing report. And if you want actual evidence about actually trans people with lived experience, this is where you can look. This is one of the studies you can look at amplifying the voices of the trans and gender non conforming community of Meanjin, Brisbane and beyond. Transmission on 4ZZZ brings you the latest in trans community news, music and events. Every Tuesday from 9am till 10am Join.

Our team of hosts for an hour.

Of celebrating the unique perspectives of the trans community Community Transmission Tuesday mornings from 9am till 10am on 4ZZZ. You're listening to Transmission on 4ZZZ and we're gonna jump straight into an interview where I spoke to the wonderful Leah Heigl who is a sports based, plants based nutritionist and dietitian. They're amazing. And we're gonna talk all things to do nutrition and health for trans people. So let's just jump straight in. Thanks for coming in to chat about nutrition and diet for trans people.

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate.

No, I'm so grateful. Would you like to introduce yourself and what you do?

So my name is Leah and I am a sports dietitian. I've been practising for around six years now and I started more so just in the general sports space. But then I became, I mean I'm queer myself and gender fluid. So I started working with a lot of queer and gender diverse people and then started I suppose marketing myself as a safer space, an inclusive space for people like myself. And then after that I started to transition as well more into kind of neuroaffirming care and trauma informed care. Because as a community I find that we are, I guess the intersectionality between neurodivergence and queerness and gender diversity. It's like we're all a big mishmash. So I'm very passionate about Kind of how it all comes together and creating a service for people like us.

Yeah. And also seems like you really like using the skills that you have to help people create and shape themselves to feel the most comfortable and healthy they can be, which is really cool.

Absolutely. And just creating a comfortable environment to do it that isn't, I guess, very like, quote unquote straight.

Yeah. And judgement free, you know, Judgement free. You know, for a lot of trans people who are uncomfortable in their body, being in it can be challenging, let alone being in a space where people might be judging you or you're feeling really heightened.

Totally. Especially being in like the fitness and health industry that is usually very CIS and straight. And I think it's just not a very welcoming, welcoming space for gender diverse people sometimes. And not very affirming of us as well. So we can, we have a lot of, I guess, struggles around body dysmorphia and disordered eating. Even more so than kind of general population, I think, for those reasons. So I'm really passionate about being on the other side of that.

Yeah. And do you, do you see a lot of people come with eating disorders and body image issues? Is that kind of like.

Totally. And whether, like, whether it's an eating disorder or just disordered eating habits that are kind of stemming from maybe some level of like gender dysphoria or just kind of just struggles around body image, I find that comes up a lot in trans spaces and queer spaces as well, just kind of generally. But it's something that the model of care for disordered eating at this point in time as dietitians and psychologists, I feel doesn't really account for the trans or gender diverse experience. So I again, am like kind of passionate about creating that and being able to apply that with my clients in an affirming way. Because I think that is like, just validating someone's experience is very important to me.

Yeah. And, you know, I think if people see you, they'll probably feel really comfortable with you as well because you have so many cool piercings and tattoos.

I'd hope so.

Yeah. And I think that's like, you know, and that's also, you know, part of like, I don't know, I find piercings and tattoos to be part of like owning your body and claiming your space and making it your own. And so like, you know, being visible is also really helpful when it comes to like feeling comfortable in your body and.

Absolutely.

And feeling like you can change it, you know, with someone.

Yes. And I think like, that performative professionalism is something that I despise in the healthcare industry because I think it can make people like ourselves feel quite uncomfortable at times. Like we have to show up in a certain way to be taken seriously and we can't be out of the norm.

Yeah, yeah.

Or everything is a psychological problem or everything is because we are a certain way. And I just. I just hate all of that in the healthcare industry.

Yeah. So it's just like we're a certain way. Have you considered about your thinking about things?

You know, it's very narrow.

Yeah. It's just like. Yes. Why do you mean me? It's not my fault you don't like my tattoos or the way that I look or the shape that I am. Yeah. Yes. How does HRT affect nutritional needs for trans people? Are there specific diets or supplements or things that we generally should be considering, whether that's oestrogen or testosterone? Is there particular ones?

Yeah. I honestly feel like this question is fairly simple for me to answer because it is going to be on a very individual basis. There's like no or very few major kind of sweeping statements I could make around the nutrition recommendations for people undergoing any kind of hormone replacement therapy, whether that's oestrogen or testosterone. So everyone does have very unique needs when it comes to nutrition, especially undergoing any kind of hormone replacement therapy. Also depends on what kind of hormone replacement we are actually undergoing. I find that even that can be different person to person, based on their needs and what they're wanting to do with their bodies and with their transition. But one of the larger changes that will happen is more around your energy requirements. So over time, when we are taking oestrogen or testosterone, as like gender affirming care, our body composition does change a lot. So we, if we're taking testosterone and that's becoming the more dominant hormone, there'll be an increase in muscle mass, usually a reduction in body fat, maybe just a general increase in body size, meaning that our energy requirements will increase from baseline and then vice versa may decrease if you are utilising oestrogen. So that's the main thing that I will, I guess, take into consideration. But it also depends on how long someone has actually been taking the hormone replacement therapy.

Longer. So because when I started testosterone, I definitely eat more now generally, yes, I'm hungrier often. It's more expensive groceries.

Yes.

And does that get more expensive as I age? Is that what's going to happen?

Yeah. Usually once you reach a point where your hormones are more stable, you're happy with where you're at and that composition has already kind of taken place, then your needs will likely not change too much. Unless you're I guess as a trans masc person just in the gym pumping iron and just gaining a bunch of muscle mass. Absolutely. Then your needs will continue to increase. I just find that before those body composition things take place, your energy requirements don't change too much. But a year or two years into transition where those changes are quite prominent, that can have a pretty large change impact on how much energy and calories you require.

Right. Okay, cool. That's good to know. Are there any common deficiencies, especially going through gender affirming treatments? Are those things that come up as well? Vitamin D is something that I generally hear about all the time.

Yeah, Vitamin D is definitely one of the kind of larger nutrient deficiencies, the most prominent just across the board general population. Everyone in Australia probably needs to get their vitamin D checked. I find that that often there isn't a huge correlation with certain micronutrient deficiencies in trans communities. But again it's like a very individual basis. I find that it's more around that person's eating behaviours that may be influenced by their transness or some level of gender dysphoria and they're trying to do something with their bodies like make it smaller. That will often result more so in the the nutrient deficiencies. So things like iron and zinc for example may be harder to get if you're not eating many calories.

And particularly for young trans people who use eating disorder or like controlled eating as a way to help mitigate maybe some puberty or something like that. And so then they end up not getting the nutrients and other wonderful minerals and things that they need in their body because using a form of control with, with eating habits.

Totally.

Do you have any advice for any like young trans people who don't have access to like HRT or something that could. What's something that they could do in terms of like eating better or looking after their health?

Yeah, I think that's such a good question. I think like I have the conversation with many of my clients around, I guess letting go of these or trying to the best that we can these like social ideals around how gender should look, whether it's masculine or feminine and being able to be whatever gender we feel without feeling the need to present in a certain way. Because I find whilst often that can come from intrinsic need to look a certain way, often it is also external kind of pressure to pass. And if you don't have access to any Hormone therapy that can be particularly hard. But also, even once there is hormone therapy in place, there are still pretty crazy expectations around how trans people should present in the world and a correct way to present.

Yeah, am I trans enough? Am I CIS enough? Am I CIS enough or yeah, like.

Oh, do I pass enough? And I think, like, as a gender fluid person, I have a bit of a different experience with gender to someone who is, you know, shifting gears completely. But I find for everyone, if we, if we could just let go of those, like, social ideals around gender presentation that is particularly helpful to our validating ourselves and then finding what we actually want rather than what we feel the pressure to.

What we think we want.

Yes.

What we're told we should be wanting. I feel like also, like, CIS people also experience the same kind of, like, pressures to be like, oh, I'm not masculine enough or I don't have this kind of tone in this way, or my body's not. And same for, for women or CIS women who also experience, like, you know, I don't have the booty that I want enough, you know, or, you know, how do I get that? How do I get that peach butt, you know, so.

Absolutely.

And we're all like, I guess, trying to, like, work towards our own individual and unique body goals.

Yeah, I think we're like, whether we're trans or we're cis, like, we probably have had a time in our lives where our body goals were based off of, you know, what we see on social media, a poster on the wall.

In your bedroom or something as a kid that you hang on to, and you're like, this is really not the healthiest thing in the world to model myself off of.

But ideally we get to a place where we again, figure out what we want rather than what society wants for us. And I just think gender diverse people are often left out of that conversation, especially online where there are people in the wellness fitness space talking about gender, the, the CIS experience of letting go of those ideals. But I find not as. There's not as much, not as many voices talking about the kind of gender diverse experience and how it is even harder sometimes to let go of those ideals.

That there was the first part of my chat with Aliyah Heigl, nutritionist and dietitian, chatting about nutrition and diet for trans and gender diverse people. And when we come back, we'll listen to part two.

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You're listening to Transmission on 4ZZZ. We're now going to jump into part two of my interview with Leah Heigl talking about nutrition and diet for trans and gender diverse people. If you're just tuning in and you'd like to listen back, you'd like to access this full interview, you can head to the Transmission Socials Ranswithaz Radio for our Instagram or Facebook. I will pop a link up there. We also are on Spotify and other streaming platforms if to listen back to the podcast including the Community Radio plus app. So you can check all that out. But now we're going to jump back into the second part of my interview with Leah. Do you have any specific considerations or challenges for gender diverse people, particularly like coming up to surgery or recovering from surgery?

Yeah, so I often support clients heading into surgery and after the fact and depending on the surgery, like some things are a little minor, some things are a lot more major, but often it'll just be getting your body into a state of like really like very nourished state heading into surgery.

Fill me with nutrients. Yeah.

So making sure we don't have any nutrient deficiencies that we're getting enough calorically if we need to spend quite a bit of time being inactive, like how can we retain muscle mass during the recovery process and not kind of wither away and then kind of coming out of that being able to recover in the best way possible and have like the best outcome from surgery possible. And nutrition can be a really huge part of that.

Yeah, massive. Yeah, yeah. Do you have, have you worked with a lot of people who like okay, I'm recovering from surgery, what do I need? What's the general. Yes, give me the hot tips. What's the hot takes?

The hot takes. Yeah. So I, a lot of my clients will go in for top surgery. Like that's the one I see all the time and it's like a pretty major surgery. So like in the lead up we're again thinking about being completely nourished, moving into that. So if someone is previously on like a weight loss journey or something like that, we're going to pivot to make sure that we are very nourished and in the best possible place to recover. And then post surgery we're really focused on having adequate protein. Our caloric requirements increase in recovery. So how are we going to manage that? Are there like pain medications that are being taken that are causing digestive issues? How do we manage that? So I think it's, if you have access, it's really helpful to work with someone like a dietitian whilst you're going through that process. But if you don't, I think like the top tips would be get enough calories, get enough protein and diversity of diet where you can.

Yeah, yeah, great. Those are some hot takes. I like that. Feels like there's some good advice generally as well.

It's like advice for everyone going through surgery. But I do find like, especially if I've had quite a few clients where they've had a lot of back to back surgeries in their transition, they're kind of going through it pretty fast. And in those situations where even more on top of this than someone that's just having a singular surgery and not planning on having any more.

Yeah, because like I went through like top surgery and then within 12 months I then had like a radical hysterectomy. And you know, and that's. Those are some pretty major surgeries.

Totally.

And also during a time when your body is like completely changing shape because I being on testosterone and also going through menopause at the same time as a new puberty and then having huge major surgery all in the space of a certain period of time.

There are massive changes, so many major changes happening. And I think it's nice for most people to have support during that if again they can access it. As I'm very aware, having a dietitian is more of a privilege, unfortunately in Australia, rather than something that's accessible. But I think it is very helpful during those times.

I think you can get a nutritionist through your gp, you can get a plan.

Yeah. So you can, you can maybe qualify for the chronic disease management plan. Although I would argue that transness is not a chronic medical. Like it's not a disease obviously. So a doctor may give you that. Where you're able to access five rebated sessions with a dietitian per calendar year and get a radio. I think the current rebates around $56 a session and you'll probably still be out of pocket. 100 to $150 per session for a dietitian.

That's all right. That's not too bad.

It's not too bad. But there are a lot of situations where gps will not put you under that plan because technically you don't fall under that category. Although if you're struggling with disordered eating, there is the eating disorder care plan where you can actually have 20 rebated sessions with a dietitian per year and you rebated sessions with a psychologist. So I find a lot of my clients qualify for that in particular, and that's how they're able to access working with me.

Wow, that's great. Super handy to know. Do you have any common questions that people ask you, like, from. From a trans or gender diverse perspective?

Yeah, I think the main questions are usually around anything. Any considerations required for hormone replacement therapy. And like I said, often it's very individual. So that's why I like working with people one on one and why I'm more hesitant to put out really generic and general advice around it.

Yeah, totally.

Because I think there are so many gaps that can occur and it's so different whether you're taking oestrogen or testosterone because obviously complete opposite changes in your body are occurring. But I'd say that would be my main question that I do get from clients. And then the rest is more around honestly, just affirming care. Like, I think that's the biggest thing with working with the trans community is just being validating, being affirming, being open, not asking stupid questions all the time. Because I feel like in the, in the medical field, trans people are bombarded with the same kind of, I want to call them silly questions or uninformed questions or being misgendered or, you know, the whole host of things that can go wrong in.

Or invasive questions.

Invasive questions, yeah. That's a great way to explain it. And I've had a lot of clients that have had poor experiences in the past and maybe the practitioner wasn't intentionally doing so, but they were just uninformed and didn't know much about the trans experience. Where I think if you're a good practitioner, you've taken the time to at least be somewhat informed on the trans experience, even if it's not your own experience.

Yeah, yeah. And gender affirming care and like being informed about trans bodies and trans experiences is not unique to working in the health industry. This is also broadly all industries. Just being mindful that, you know, not everybody wants to be asked about the genitals when you meet them. Yes.

I had to run a, like a professional development session with some dietitians and I'm like, I can't believe I have to say this, but please don't ask what's in someone's pants. If they want to disclose to you what surgeries they have or have not had, that's fine. But, you know, there's a time and place to ask those questions for very specific medical professionals where it may make a difference to your care, but where it's not making a difference to care, don't ask. It's not appropriate, as we know.

So how has your experience been working in nutrition as a transgender verse person yourself?

Like, yeah, I feel like with my gender fluidness, that's something that I kind of slowly came to accept over time because I feel like I didn't fit into this nice, neat little box when it comes to my gender presentation or how I feel about gender. It's actually only been in the last kind of one to two years that I've kind of come out as being gender fluid and using more they. Them pronouns. And it's felt very affirming and validating. And I feel like it's my work with the trans community that has actually felt like validating to me in a way. And I was like, oh, I relate to this community so much, and I've felt like I can come out and just be who I am and it wasn't going to impact my career in a negative way because I think in the back of my mind, I was worried to be too out there to be that. Yeah, I'm the polyamorous, pansexual, gender fluid person, and everyone else in the industry is very not that. And just looking at me like, well, this person's a little strange.

I have, like, a massive smile on my face. I'm just so happy for you generally that, you know, because it's so great when you can be able to be yourself in the space that you work in the field that you work. Although there are challenges, it sounds like you're working with a lot of clients that, like, really appreciate your visibility.

Oh, absolutely. And I think it's been a really weird process of, like. Like, I was pretty closed off initially. I didn't really share these parts of myself kind of publicly, particularly online. And then working with more trans and gender diverse folks, I became more comfortable. And the more comfortable I became, and the more I shared about my journey, the more other people saw themselves in me. And, like, I think, like, people that were already in a good place with being able to be out and be themselves made me feel that way. And now I help Other people feel that way and it's just like a nice kind of like domino effect.

Oh, that's so wonderful. I'm so, so happy that this is all like coming together in this way for you and you get to explore who you are and do this work. How do people find you? Who are you? Where do we go?

Yeah. So I on Instagram, I'm plantstrongdietitian. So I do work like a lot in the plant based space. But not plant based only. It's just like a big part of my practise because I am plant based and then also my business plantstrongco.com so that's my website. But you can also find me over at Ideal Nutrition and I have a podcast called the Ideal Nutrition Podcast and we speak more generally about nutrition overall rather than kind of a specific experience. But I do have another podcast called the Plantstrong Co podcast where I do it explore a little bit more of those like niche things that are important to me like plant based diets, neuro affirming care, gender diversity and how all of that can play into nutrition.

Amazing. That's amazing. I will throw all those links up on the Transmission socials and I'll also put that on the 4zz-amrap page so you can go click and check. Thank you so much for coming in the studio and doing this with me today. Much appreciated.

Thank you for having me. I really loved it.

Yay. Thank you so much for tuning in to Transmission this morning. That there was my interview earlier in the month with Leah Heigl. We're gonna head off now. Thanks Ray for keeping me company in the studio this morning.

Thank you so much. It was amazing.

All right, we're out of here. Bye bye. Thank you so much for listening to Transmission. See you next Tuesday, 9 to 10am on 4ZZZ SA.