Aleece Fosnight, MSPAS, PA-C, CSC, CSE has been a physician assistant for the past 10 years and has been a sexual health counselor and educator for almost six years. Aleece opened up her own private practice in June 2020, the Fosnight Center for Sexual Health, in Asheville, NC. She is a provider of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health, basic urologic care, and gynecological care for Western North Carolina and the Southeast U.S.
Fosnight provides all-inclusive urologic care to all generations. Her interests include pelvic floor dysfunction, biofeedback, urinary incontinence, urodynamics, pelvic organ prolapse, pelvic pain, low libido, interstitial cystitis, menopause, female sexual health, low testosterone, and erectile dysfunction. She is also a nationally certified sexual health counselor and educator, providing sexual health education, information, and personalized counseling to patients of all ages.
SHWI: How did you become interested in focusing your practice on trans sexual health? Also what is the prevalence of this population and at what rate is it growing?
In 2012, there was a trans health conference – which has always been an area of interest of mine – in the city near me. During the presentation, one of the physicians commented on the fact that there were too few specialists in the area to take care of trans folx with urinary concerns. Being in urology, I was puzzled why there were no urologists that were willing to see these individuals. So, I went up afterward and introduced myself and said I am here to help, how can we collaborate? We set up a lunch, discussed how we could work together, and our practice started to get referrals. Knowing that this population has unfortunately many barriers to healthcare, I started researching more on trans health and what I could do. And the rest is history! I have been taking care of trans individuals with everything from hormone care all the way to performing orchiectomies as a first-step gender affirming surgery.
In most population surveys, transgender individuals are underrepresented. Estimates of the number of transgender adults significantly increased over the past decade, with a current best estimate of 390 per 100,000 adults. That is about 1 in every 250 adults, or almost 1 million Americans.(1)