What does it mean?
Pre-op is short for “pre-operative”, meaning someone who has not had a medical operation yet.
The typical implication is that this refers to someone who has not had bottom surgery (surgery to alter the genitals).
Pre-op is normally considered to be the opposite of post-op. People who do not plan to have such surgery are sometimes described as non-op.
Change focused
"Pre-op" is a word that describes people by changes they have made or plan to make.
Words like this can:
- make it more visible that those changes are possible
- make it more visible that some people want or need those changes
- make it easier to find people to discuss those changes with
However, words like this can also:
- imply everyone should want the same things
- imply everyone should do the same things
- imply that people who do not make a particular change are inferior or fraudulent
- help create an expectation that people’s history is public and not private
Think carefully before using this word to describe someone or a group of people - they may not wish to be described that way.
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