In the first of two pieces about their zine, Cervical screening for trans+ autistic people: A tool for self advocacy, researchers Georgia Rivers and Katie Munday discuss the pressing need for accessible community resources and why they chose to create one for themselves.
Doing trans+ health research is tricky considering the historical mistreatment of trans+ people and bodies within medicine and medical research. This is made worse by the current hostile socio-political climate in the UK, the U.S, and other countries across the world.
When you are trans+ and doing this research, this trickiness can be exceedingly hard to navigate. To stay safe whilst sharing vital information we must consistently make complicated, important decisions as trans+ researchers. These decisions not only inform how to keep ourselves and those we work with safe but also underpin how we believe trans+ knowledge is created and shared.
So often we see academics do amazing research, but the findings aren’t disseminated widely enough outside of academia to be accessible. Whilst it is important to start these conversations within the academic sphere, it is equally important to make sure these research findings extend beyond academia and back into the hands of those it matters to most. Of course, getting information to health professionals is important, but health professionals must also be willing to support trans+ autistic people, be open to new knowledge, and engage with improving inclusivity and accessibility in their time-constrained practice.
Imagining more ways to share knowledge
From the start of their PhD, Ge wanted to ensure that their research gave back to the community. They didn’t want to exploit the community for journal articles and conference papers that were likely to be read only by other researchers.
Ge’s desire to share their research findings with the trans+ community was solidified during their PhD study data collection. Multiple participants in Ge’s study wanted to know what other participants had said to see if there was anything that could help them at their next screening. Their aim was not just to provide information for research, but to learn about other people’s experiences. About what had helped, what had made things worse, how people coped before and after their appointments or while booking them, and any accommodations they could ask for.
Similarly, Katie has experienced this want and need to share resources, personal stories and other community information between autistic research participants within both cancer care and substance use care (Tansley et al., 2025; Munday et al., 2025).
Their current PhD work uses participatory action research to create knowledge with a small group of trans+ autistic researchers. Not only is involving more trans+ autistic people in a study about our lives good practice, but it also allows us to connect with each other, share resources and engage in mutual aid and resistance. Trans+ autistic people must have ownership over our own stories, knowledge and culture.
To zine or not to zine
The idea for making a zine around cervical screening for trans+ autistic people came from the wonderful Fucking Trans Women zine by Mira Bellwether. It came from knowing that people outside of the trans+ community most likely wouldn’t share things to help trans+ people with us, so we might as well do it ourselves.
And what better way than by creating a zine; a document that can be hosted freely online for anyone to see, with an option to buy a physical copy on a sliding scale. Better still, when that money goes back into the independent feminist zine press, Penfight,
There was some information we really wanted to share with trans+ autistic people, like knowing that you can book cervical screenings for the same time as testosterone injections. This can help tackle some of the gender dysphoria that comes from cervical screening. Ge had never considered this as an option until one of their participants shared that a health professional had suggested this. And that says it all really.
There are some great things that can be done to tackle discomfort, but if people aren’t aware of the options, they can’t ask for them. Now, whenever Ge talks about their PhD, they make sure to share this specific finding to highlight how reducing discomfort around cervical screening doesn’t have to be specifically related to the procedure. Something as simple as combining the two appointments can help reduce this discomfort.
Of course, not every transmasculine or non-binary person uses gender affirming hormones (or are out to their health care providers) but it was important to share this example as one of many things people are allowed to ask for.
Participants in Ge’s study were unaware that they could ask for the procedure to stop if it was too painful, or to shift to a more comfortable position. Many didn’t know they could ask to insert the speculum themselves or bring a trusted person with them. While a chaperone was offered, it often wasn’t explained that this could be someone the person chose, so some participants turned this down due to not wanting another stranger in the room.
Informed decision making and permission granting is especially important for the trans+ autistic people who shared in Ge’s research. They didn’t know they could ask for certain things and needed explicit permission to do so.
We wanted the zine to be that explicit permission—ask for what you need and know that these adjustments are on offer for everyone. We wanted our Cervical screening for trans+ autistic people: A tool for self-advocacy zine to support people to make informed decisions around cervical screening. To support them to consider what would be helpful to them, and to come up with their own ideas.
We think we have achieved this (although we are always open to feedback). We have created a zine that can act as a jumping off point for making a cervical screening appointment that works for the reader in a way that wouldn’t be possible if these findings had been confined to the academic sphere.
Get checked, stay safe
There is amazing community-led work in academia, activism and community spaces. However, the onus for creating inclusive and accessible care should not be placed solely on the affected communities. Accessibility and inclusion should be embedded within education, training and practice.
Ideally, Ge would like to make a document for training for health professionals too, so that someone in every interaction would be aware of what they can offer/ask for when someone finds screening difficult. Unfortunately, it’s much easier to get this information out within the trans+ community than among health professionals, but that’s a whole other conversation! Katie has also had ideas to create a self-advocacy tool for autistic people negotiating substance use recovery services; they may have caught the zine making bug!
There is a place for zines in health and social care research, and even in psychology (read Katie’s ongoing interdisciplinary wobbles here). They can be used to bridge the gap between community members and academia, and can improve wellbeing, connection and fulfilment for those of us who are community member academics.
About the authors
Dr Georgia Rivers did a qualitative PhD between 2021-2025 on transmasculine people’s experiences of cervical screening in the North of England. As their PhD topic stemmed from their own anxieties around cervical screening, it was important to them to make sure findings were shared outside of the academic sphere.
Katie Munday has worked as a community researcher on cancer service accessibility since 2021, focused on accessibility and affirmation for trans and Disabled people. Their current ESRC-funded PhD study explores health and social care experiences of transgender and gender diverse autistic adults living in the UK. Katie wanted to share their own experiences of cervical screening to help normalise conversations about cervical health. More of their work can be found on their website https://autisticltd.co.uk/.
References
Munday, K., Papadopoulos, C., Adkin, T., & Gray-Hammond, D. (2025). Improving substance use services for autistic adults: Insights and recommendations from autistic adults. Autism in Adulthood, 00 (00), 1-13. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/aut.2024.0213
Tansley, R., Corbin-Clarke, S., Munday, K., Durrant, A. and Hughes, M. (2024). “What I would like to say” findings: Cancer care for everyone. Journal of Community Nursing, 38 (1), 46-50. https://www.jcn.co.uk/journals/issue/02-2024/article/what-i-would-like-to-say-findings-cancer-care-for-everyone
