Expert-Approved Strategies to Help Your Family Understand Gender-Neutral Pronouns
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Finding your correct pronouns is an important milestone, but getting the rest of your family to use them can feel like a whole separate battle. Odds are, not everyone in your family shares the same values or perspectives, which can make the task of explaining gender-neutral pronouns feel daunting, especially when talking to older generations who grew up within a strict gender binary. Older relatives may hold unconscious biases regarding gender identity based on their own lifelong conditioning, said Allison Forti, PhD, an associate teaching professor and associate director of the Department of Counseling Online Programs at Wake Forest University, adding that some relatives may view gender-neutral pronouns as a phase or a way of trying on an identity that doesn t really reflect who you are. Therefore, it takes education, conscious awareness, and reflection to understand gender identity
What Young Patients Should Know About Colon Cancer
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There are good reasons why the United States Preventive Services Task Force has recommended lowering the screening age for colon cancer from 50 to 45. According to the American Cancer Society, those under 50 now account for 12% of all colon cancer cases, a big (and concerning) jump in recent years. Here is what cancer experts and a patient who’s been through treatment herself think you should know.
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Colon Cancer Doesn’t Have to Run in Your Family
Most younger people who get colon cancer do not have a hereditary predisposition, says Hao Xie, M.D., an oncologist in the department of gastrointestinal oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL. “Actually most of the [younger] patients we see in our clinic don t really have a family history. And they don t really have a specific risk factor,” he says, like smoking or even obesity.