Lessons from a Transgender Patient for Health Care Professionals (original) (raw)
2016, AMA Journal of Ethics
It is not uncommon for transgender patients to avoid sharing information about their identity and medical history with health care professionals, due to past negative experiences within health care settings. Professionals who show sensitivity to the topic and express care about health record documentation can increase a transgender patient's trust. There are many opportunities to increase transgender health literacy, including consultation, conferences, webinars, books, and articles focused on transgender health care. It's critical for professionals to listen closely to individual patients' stated needs. This article shares one transgender patient's encounters and experiences within health care settings and offers lessons on how health care professionals can be more inclusive, respectful, and responsive to the needs of transgender patients. Major Life Transitions In the spring of 2005, I prepared for two major life transitions. The first was finishing graduate school and leaving academia to enter the workforce. The second was coming out as a transgender man-a person assigned female at birth but who identifies as male. My professional and personal lives quickly collided when I embarked on the critical medically assisted parts of my transition and found that many health care professionals were not trained to care for transgender patients. To compensate for clinicians' gaps in knowledge, I began to specialize in transgender health education. Lessons Learned After doing this work for over a decade, I share several important lessons about what I've learned as a patient and educator, with the goal of trying to cultivate health professionals' and students' understanding of how to be a helpful and responsive clinician for transgender patients. Lesson 1: Understanding transgender health means understanding risks faced by transgender people. Coming out as transgender to health care professionals carries substantial risk for emotional and physical harms. A 2011 survey of The viewpoints expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.
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