Interview with Dr. Marci Bowers

An interview with Dr. Marci Bowers, a white woman with a lived trans experience, OB/GYN, and plastic surgeon specializing in gender affirming surgeries. At the time of this interview, she was the president-elect of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH,) and was in surgical practice in Burlingame, California, having previously practiced in Trinidad, Colorado after studying under Dr. Stanley Biber. Bowers is the first woman with a lived trans experience to perform gender-affirming surgeries, and is one of the most prolific gender-affirming surgeons in the United States. In addition to her work, she has had a prominent media presence on trans issues, specifically issues around trans health care, for over two decades. In this oral history interview, Bowers discusses her upbringing in suburban Wisconsin and initial entry into medicine through obstetrics, the relationship between her initial forays into trans medicine and her personal transition, her education and surgical practice, and her thoughts on trans medical care, politics, theory, and the use of trans issues in the political arena. Specifically, she discusses her work under Dr. Biber and thoughts on being a trans practitioner, her practices in Colorado and California, transitioning and parenting, and her thoughts on trans athletics, autogynephilia theory, hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers for adolescents and youth, the political and press uproar over such care, and WPATH's history, recent developments, and future trajectory.

Item Actions

View At: https://umedia.lib.umn.edu/item/p16022coll97:240
Share
Citation: Cite

Item Information:

Identifier: n870zr15x
Collection: Audio and Video Clips and Transcripts
Institution: Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection, University of Minnesota
Creator(s): Bowers, Marci
Contributor(s): Beam, Myrl
Billund-Phibbs, Myra
Chamness, Daria
Publisher: University of Minnesota Minneapolis Libraries
Date Created: Nov. 4, 2021
Genre: Oral Histories
Transcriptions
Subject(s): World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)
Places: California > San Francisco County > San Francisco
Colorado > Las Animas County > Trinidad
California > San Mateo County > Burlingame
Topic(s): Gender affirming surgery
Health care for LGBTQ+ people
LGBTQ+ parenthood
Plastic surgeons
Trans women
Transitioning (Gender)
White transgender people
Resource Type: Moving image
Text
Language: English
Rights: Copyright undetermined
For more information on copyright, please read our policies