help me with this plot hole in my trans story

[joy_of_cooking]

Trying to figure out a piece of my story. Curious to hear others' thoughts.

(Assigned at birth) male doctor (not the MMC) decides to transition. His marriage falls apart in the process; his wife is not into women, even trans women she's already married to. She works at the same hospital. They don't want to keep working together, but they do want to stay in the same city for the sake of the kids.

Her job (which I will leave unspecified if I can't figure out what it would be) is not very portable. Maybe seniority matters a lot in her line of work, so even if she could find the same job at another hospital it'd be a much worse deal.

Whereas he can pretty easily get a comparable offer at a nearby hospital. So they decide that she "gets the hospital in the divorce" and he changes jobs. Everyone's sad to see him go.

Plot-wise, the point of this side story is to establish that the MMC's workplace is trans-friendly and to raise the fear that his marriage may be in danger, even if his wife is in principle supportive.

Does this seem plausible? Any idea what her job could be? (Doctor/nurse couples are so cliche, but it is a thing that happens and I do know that nurse pay and benefits sometimes do scale with tenure...)

 

[AwkwardMD]

Plot-wise, the point of this side story is to establish that the MMC's workplace is trans-friendly and to raise the fear that his marriage may be in danger, even if his wife is in principle supportive.

Does this seem plausible? Any idea what her job could be? (Doctor/nurse couples are so cliche, but it is a thing that happens and I do know that nurse pay and benefits sometimes do scale with tenure...)

Have Hospital B have a specific focus. Something their hospital specializes in. Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital on House M.D. was the only hospital that had a Diagnostic Medicine department. Maybe this is a hospital that specializes in snake bites in Tempe, AZ, shark bites in the Outer Banks of North Carolina or São Paolo. High-risk pregnancies (weight, age, etc). Menopause (you'd be shocked how much of OB/GYN stuff is focused on the fertile years and nothing else). The hospital this ex-wife is at is the hospital that has the reputation for being the best at this specific thing, and she wouldn't necessarily take that reputation with her if she moved. Depending on 'the thing', there might not be facilities for what she specializes in, and no hospital is gonna build swank new facilities just because they hired a hot shot in a new area.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Trying to figure out a piece of my story. Curious to hear others' thoughts.

(Assigned at birth) male doctor (not the MMC) decides to transition. His marriage falls apart in the process; his wife is not into women, even trans women she's already married to. She works at the same hospital. They don't want to keep working together, but they do want to stay in the same city for the sake of the kids.

Her job (which I will leave unspecified if I can't figure out what it would be) is not very portable. Maybe seniority matters a lot in her line of work, so even if she could find the same job at another hospital it'd be a much worse deal.

Whereas he can pretty easily get a comparable offer at a nearby hospital. So they decide that she "gets the hospital in the divorce" and he changes jobs. Everyone's sad to see him go.

Plot-wise, the point of this side story is to establish that the MMC's workplace is trans-friendly and to raise the fear that his marriage may be in danger, even if his wife is in principle supportive.

Does this seem plausible? Any idea what her job could be? (Doctor/nurse couples are so cliche, but it is a thing that happens and I do know that nurse pay and benefits sometimes do scale with tenure...)

Have the hospital be involved in some kind of research and her be the head of the project. Maybe she’s working with Elon on neural implants, or something else cutting(pun intended) edge. He can be a highly regarded emergency surgeon which would be easily transportable and highly desirable.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

You're both jumping to what her less-portable job would be. I guess that means you buy the basic premise of "I love you and wish you all the best, but I don't wanna stay married to you or see you at work anymore." ?

 

[TheLobster]

I don’t find it implausible, at least in a Lit story, that a couple would dissolve their marriage amicably following the husband’s discovery that he’s autogynephiliac and deciding to fully embrace that lifestyle. Assuming that kids aren’t involved, it all hinges upon his wife’s acceptance which is easy to write into the story as you please.

As for her job, she obviously cannot be a nurse, since medical personnel at that level can easily be transferred between facilities. The specialization or research lead angle that’s been suggested above would be much more fitting.

 

[Cagivagurl]

Trying to figure out a piece of my story. Curious to hear others' thoughts.

(Assigned at birth) male doctor (not the MMC) decides to transition. His marriage falls apart in the process; his wife is not into women, even trans women she's already married to. She works at the same hospital. They don't want to keep working together, but they do want to stay in the same city for the sake of the kids.

Her job (which I will leave unspecified if I can't figure out what it would be) is not very portable. Maybe seniority matters a lot in her line of work, so even if she could find the same job at another hospital it'd be a much worse deal.

Whereas he can pretty easily get a comparable offer at a nearby hospital. So they decide that she "gets the hospital in the divorce" and he changes jobs. Everyone's sad to see him go.

Plot-wise, the point of this side story is to establish that the MMC's workplace is trans-friendly and to raise the fear that his marriage may be in danger, even if his wife is in principle supportive.

Does this seem plausible? Any idea what her job could be? (Doctor/nurse couples are so cliche, but it is a thing that happens and I do know that nurse pay and benefits sometimes do scale with tenure...)

What plot hole????
It's fiction... So long as you lay out good characters. The story flows with good dialogue. It will be a good story.
The real drama of the suggested plot is around the couple and how threy deal with the uncovering of the transition.
There is going to be lots of other tension spots as well as friendships are stretched and broken.
People at the starting hospital may share relationships with both sides of the split.
If I read a story based around a medical plot. I don't go off and research whether it's real. I don't know enough about such things.
What I'm interested in is the relationships.
How they deal with loss, how they deal with people who may be stunned by a story like that.
A person not only coming out, but transitioning....
Lots of room for interesting conversations...
Good luck.

Cagivagurl

 

[AlexBailey]

The wife could be Director of Development and Philanthropic Outreach - an official shmoozer and fundraiser for the hospital.

The position would have her in the head offices and give her a key social roles that could help with the drama aspects.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Have Hospital B have a specific focus. Something their hospital specializes in. Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital on House M.D. was the only hospital that had a Diagnostic Medicine department. Maybe this is a hospital that specializes in snake bites in Tempe, AZ, shark bites in the Outer Banks of North Carolina or São Paolo. High-risk pregnancies (weight, age, etc). Menopause (you'd be shocked how much of OB/GYN stuff is focused on the fertile years and nothing else). The hospital this ex-wife is at is the hospital that has the reputation for being the best at this specific thing, and she wouldn't necessarily take that reputation with her if she moved. Depending on 'the thing', there might not be facilities for what she specializes in, and no hospital is gonna build swank new facilities just because they hired a hot shot in a new area.

Other options:

A specialty where the long-term relationship with patients is important - e.g. a psych who works with kids who don't open up easily and would find it very disruptive to have to change therapists.

A link to some local community, e.g. she's a member of a specific First Nations or immigrant group that's localised to that area, and has some kind of community liaison role.

You're both jumping to what her less-portable job would be. I guess that means you buy the basic premise of "I love you and wish you all the best, but I don't wanna stay married to you or see you at work anymore." ?

No plausibility issues there. That happens quite often when a married person transitions. Even when the partner is cool with having a same-gender spouse (or a newly opposite-gender one), transitioning can put a lot of strain on a relationship simply because it's a major life event and those have a way of derailing stuff.

The "everyone's sad to see him go" is maybe a little harder to buy; maybe I'm unduly pessimistic but it'd surprise me if there's nobody in that workplace with anti-trans prejudices.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Depends on how much you want to go into it, how big a part of the plot it needs to be. It could be as simple as having one job be civil service or union, where seniority is the single biggest factor in your pay, and the other job being private or management.

-Rocco

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

You're both jumping to what her less-portable job would be. I guess that means you buy the basic premise of "I love you and wish you all the best, but I don't wanna stay married to you or see you at work anymore." ?

It’s not only a plausible premise, it’s a very real situation for trans women. Your wife married a man, and now you’re becoming a woman. Unless you discussed this at depth before you got married, she absolutely did not sign up for this. So, yeah, she may still love you, but staying with you as a lesbian couple is not something she’s up for.


Also, autogynephilia and gender dysphoria are two separate issues. I’ve been dealing with my dysphoria for decades and it has never been sexually arousing.

 

[AwkwardMD]

Bitterly plausible

 

[Bramblethorn]

I don’t find it implausible, at least in a Lit story, that a couple would dissolve their marriage amicably following the husband’s discovery that he’s autogynephiliac and deciding to fully embrace that lifestyle.

OP was talking about the character being transgender, not autogynephiliac - the latter being largely if not wholly a myth.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

"I love you and wish you all the best, but I don't wanna stay married to you or see you at work anymore."

Sorry, I messed up the formatting here. The "or see you at work anymore" was supposed to be italicized. That's the part that feels like a stretch.

Hospitals are big places. Seems like they could just request, e.g., not to scrub in on the same cases if anyone can help it.

And if something comes up where they have to work directly together, they can be awkward and then go their separate ways afterward?

(Is it obvious yet that I've never been divorced?)

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

But how painful was it when your girlfriend broke up with you in high school and you had to see each other every day? Amplify that.

 

[SookieHaze7]

Sorry, I messed up the formatting here. The "or see you at work anymore" was supposed to be italicized. That's the part that feels like a stretch.

Hospitals are big places. Seems like they could just request, e.g., not to scrub in on the same cases if anyone can help it.

And if something comes up where they have to work directly together, they can be awkward and then go their separate ways afterward?

(Is it obvious yet that I've never been divorced?)

Maybe she feels completely humiliated about not seeing this coming. She may feel stupid for not seeing something that now seems so obvious (ie. she ignored things A, B, and C but now realizes they were clear clues that her husband isn't who she thought he was). She can still love her husband and support his decision but not want his issues to become hers at work. She has to interact with him when dealing with the kids, but that doesn't mean it has to be in her face all day at work as well.

There is also something about the constant threat of being reminded about your biggest life failure at any moment when you're trying to confidently do your job. Sure, this is the husband's major issue, but the wife isn't going to see it that way. It's hard enough to go through a divorce (no matter how amicable) without the added thought that you read the love of your life completely wrong. Intellectually, you can say "Well, he didn't know, so how could I?", but thinking it and feeling it are two different things.

I know this might change your story a bit, but if the husband leaves his job before transitioning, then only close friends at work would know, not the entire staff. That would limit the perceived damage to the wife by only involving people who will know about his transition no matter what. OTOH, her struggle with all this might be a plot point you want to explore.

Or you could just do the simple thing and put them in the same department as equals (both ER doctors, a surgeon and an anesthesiologist, or whatever) where they have to work closely together on a daily basis. He has the issue, so he leaves to spare her the consequences of his transition because he loves her too.

 

[alohadave]

Sorry, I messed up the formatting here. The "or see you at work anymore" was supposed to be italicized. That's the part that feels like a stretch.

Hospitals are big places. Seems like they could just request, e.g., not to scrub in on the same cases if anyone can help it.

And if something comes up where they have to work directly together, they can be awkward and then go their separate ways afterward?

(Is it obvious yet that I've never been divorced?)

Not quite the same thing, but have you ever worked with someone you can't stand, for whatever reason? It makes working a nightmare.

Doing that with a spouse that is transitioning/transitioned would be torturous for both and would make getting over it that much harder. It could also lead to resentment and longer term hurt feelings.

Sometimes running away from the situation is the best thing to do. If I was going to divorce my wife, I certainly wouldn't want to keep working with her day to day, I'd look for work somewhere else if I could.

And I'm not saying there needs to be enmity for this to happen, just the constant reminder of your broken life would get to a lot of people.

 

[AlexBailey]

I’m picturing a scene where one ex stops the other in the elevator, the door shuts and one of them hits the stop button between floors. A whole blow out argument ensues that can be heard down the halls of two floors.

It could explore the very real drama of conflict in their relationship without trans identity intolerance being an issue.

Management would have to confront them and insists that one has to go for the good of the hospital, meanwhile they both have the stress of performing their duties while being emotionally drained as they find a new balance.

 

[MillieDynamite]

She doesn't need to be a doctor; she can be the hospital's chief executive officer (CEO). She isn't about to be expected to move on and find another comparable position when a doctor is just a doctor and not responsible for more than his domain. The CEO is in charge of everything. Make her the most important person in the hospital and him just another doctor, competent in whatever field his in, but he/she is both replaceable and easily in demand elsewhere.

 

[MillieDynamite]

The CEO typically has a Master's in Business Administration (MBA), a Master's in Healthcare Administration (MHA), a Master's in Healthcare Management (MHM), or a Master of Medical Management (MMM). They also have experience in the healthcare system.

 

[AlexBailey]

She doesn't need to be a doctor; she can be the hospital's chief executive officer (CEO). She isn't about to be expected to move on and find another comparable position when a doctor is just a doctor and not responsible for more than his domain. The CEO is in charge of everything. Make her the most important person in the hospital and him just another doctor, competent in whatever field his in, but he/she is both replaceable and easily in demand elsewhere.

The power dynamic could be great for story telling.

 

[Cagivagurl]

There is the still untold aspect of how the hospital deals with the transition...
Stigma's and prejudice still exist people. Humans still exhibit all of those symptoms.
How the hospital deals with the situation depending on the transitioning doctors level of status. If they are an established member of the hospital staff, then that would be another aspect of the story.
They may not want to lose one of their most influential staff members. (From either side of the now dysfunctional marriage).
This could be an absolutely fabulous story with so much tension and conflict.
Two senior doctors from the same department. Both in very short supply, would force the hospital to intervene and try to manage a situation where they don't want to lose either party.

Cagivagurl

 

[MillieDynamite]

Yeah, I love stories where marriage/relationship is out of whack in terms of power between the couple. Not just in cuckold stories, but the power of who has the money, who has the prestige, who's actually in control, and how the weaker person in the relationship deals with all that. Obviously, I would love the woman to be the boss, but the other way around is nice, too.

The power dynamic could be great for story telling.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Sorry, I messed up the formatting here. The "or see you at work anymore" was supposed to be italicized. That's the part that feels like a stretch.

Hospitals are big places. Seems like they could just request, e.g., not to scrub in on the same cases if anyone can help it.

Depending on what they do, that may not be a trivial request.

Scheduling hospital procedures has become a very high-tech business. Hospitals need to coordinate the availability of staff, operating theatres, and equipment that may be in limited supply, and it can be hard to predict just how long any given procedure will take. They're caught between overbooking (consequence: procedures overrun and following procedures have to be postponed/cancelled, while patients sit around prepped for surgery and not allowed to eat) and underbooking (consequence: doing fewer procedures than they could be doing, leaving people waiting on treatment unnecessarily). A non-urgent case might need to be postponed in order to handle an emergency. And so on.

Logistics nerds have spent a lot of time fussing over systems to handle these problems - see e.g. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12553-021-00547-5 for flavour. Adding in extra restrictions like "X can't work with Y" may be something the system simply can't handle ("computer says no"), or it may be something that reduces their efficiency.

I could easily see an administrator telling them "nope, as long as you work here you'll be rostered via the same system as anybody else, and if you're rostered together you'll just have to suck it up".

 

[joy_of_cooking]

All right, I'm gonna take yes for an answer on this one. Thanks, everyone!

By the way, this is going to be a pretty minor part of my story. If anyone wants to explore this idea in more detail, you're welcome to make the idea your own.

 

[Djmac1031]

You're both jumping to what her less-portable job would be. I guess that means you buy the basic premise of "I love you and wish you all the best, but I don't wanna stay married to you or see you at work anymore." ?

I happen to know a transgender woman who's marriage broke up during her transition but they remain friends. So it does happen.