Health Care For Transgender Patients Essay

Health disparities in the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender community that lack fair treatment. This population deals with many adversities due to their sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBT’s community consists of a diverse population of people who come from all walks of life ((Howard, 2016). Many LBGT’s will delay or not seek health care due to stigma and lack of fair treatment. In other words, they believe that they are discriminated against.

Scholars have been critical of the medical establishment’s and state’s involvement in constructing and policing of transgender identity. These kinds of pressing issues have occupied the small existing literature. There is not much information and studying what is being done on transgender in traditional areas, family studies research, such as their dating behavior and formation of intimate relationships in adulthood. There is little research on the issues around being parents, their children’s experiences with having transgendered parents, as well as relationships in the family as a whole, and relationships in work and school.

The transgender population often have complicated medical needs and encounter numerous health disparities including discrimination, lack of access to quality health care and social stigma. Some health disparities include various chronic diseases, cancers, as well as mental health issues (Vanderbilt University, 2017). Transgender individuals are at increased risk of HIV infection with their rates being reported “over four times the national average of HIV infection, with higher rates among transgender people of color (Grant, Mottet, Tanis, 2011).” In addition, they usually do not have health insurance (Makadon, 2017) and have a lower probability of preventative cancer screenings in transgender men (AMSA, 2017).

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) falls within societal minority groups such as low income, people of color, and disables (AHRQ, 2011). Due to their gender identity, discrimination, violence, and even denial of human rights and healthcare services is a common challenge among LGBT population. LGBT still faces many health disparities primarily related to the historic bias of healthcare professionals anti-LGBT manners even though society acceptance has been favorable. According to Ard and Makadon (n.d), “until 1973, homosexuality was listed as a disorder…, and transgender still is.” This stigma prevents healthcare professionals to openly ask questions in a non-judgmental manner related to sexual identity. On the other hand, if the patient senses that the healthcare environment is discriminating they may be reluctant to disclose important information as their sexual orientation; thus, missing important opportunities of been educated about safety and health care risks.

This decision has affected people’s behavior as individuals and public institutions such as family, young, elderly, disabled, LGTB and those with pre-existing conditions. For example, Kates & Ranji (2014) report that health care access and coverage for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGTB) community in the U.S. face opportunities and challenges when getting access to care. The authors report that LGBT individuals experience some discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, due to ongoing discrimination, access to health care have been limited to these people (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2014). LGBT individuals not only face discrimination when trying to receive care, but also face difficulties that limit them such as “barriers in obtaining insurance coverage, gaps in coverage, cost-related hurdles, and poor treatment by health care providers” (Kates & Ranji, 2014).

Throughout history, it is evident that inequalities and disparities are part of health systems and society. Even after all the success of activism, such as the work from the human rights movement and campaign, inequalities and disparities are still evident today. Especially within minority groups, such as LGBTQ* (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) individuals – this is not to say that LGBTQ are the only categories when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identities, thus it is followed by a * – and racial groups. Furthermore, it is evident that within minority groups there are specific micro-level groups that experience unique and sometimes even greater amount of inequalities and disparities. For example, the micro-level group of transgender individuals from the LGBTQ* community is one of the many minority groups that experience both medical and social disparities and inequalities.This paper will discuss both the medical and social inequalities and disparities that Transgender Individuals face, including structural violence and intentional violence.

Of the study’s 25 participants, 20 were female-to-male. The authors determined the main problem for the participants was the struggle to find transgender-sensitive health care. The subjects described discrimination by healthcare systems, lack of knowledge and hostility by providers, and lack of health insurance to cover transgender-specific healthcare needs. Some of the FtM participants who had problems with pelvic pain, abnormal uterine bleeding, and a history of abnormal Pap tests kept their gender as female on their insurance so they could still get the care they needed. Using a national cross-sectional survey data set, Shires and Jaffee (2015) reported similar findings. Of the 1,711 FtM participants included in this study, 41.8 percent reported verbal harassment, physical assault, or denial of equal treatment in a doctor’s office or

Humans have established their own rights in society for many, many years now. However, because some humans differ from the norms that are built in society, they are shunned and denied their rights until they conform to society’s norms. There has been numerous groups of people who have been denied their rights in America. African Americans, immigrants, Native Americans, and gays have been isolated simply because that is the way that they were born into this world and others do not find them “normal”. There is another group that has also been mistreated though; people who identify themselves as transgendered. A good portion of society is unknowingly misinformed about these kinds of people.

While things like marriage and anti-discrimination laws have made it safer and more accepting in the mainstream for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, the transgender community remains largely unchanged by these things. One area in particular has remained almost completely stagnant since the 1980s, medicine. Most medical professionals willing to aid transgender individuals in Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and Sexual Reassignment Surgery (SRS) operate under the gatekeeper model. The gatekeeper model is loosely defined as the practice where any combination of doctors, therapists, and psychiatrists take the majority of responsibility for the diagnosing and, “treatment,” of a transgender person seeking either HRT or SRS. Under this model nearly sole responsibility falls to that group of professionals, and because of that many problems in terms of proper diagnosis, ethics, and safety have sprung up. More recently a very small amount doctors have been operating under a new model. This model, called informed consent, allows the transgender individual to take some responsibility for their treatment, and in a lot of cases subvert the massive amount of unreasonable hoops and rules the gatekeeper model has. The informed consent model of treatment for transgender individuals is the superior model by far in terms of diagnosis, safety, and ethical treatment.

Transgenders are being categorized as being mentally ill. Though transgender counseling exists it only focuses on pathology and diagnosis. Transgenders are also severely at risk of hate crimes. In the United States alone, there are 321 transgender hate crimes per year. Transgender hate crimes can be compared to Muslims post-9/11. There’s no law to protect them from these hate crimes and nothing is ever really done to show them that they have rights too. There’s no law protecting them with employment right’s either. Due to discrimination they are vulnerable and led to no job, homelessness, suicide and even no health care. ( Anneliese A. Singh, Danica G. Hays, and Laurel S. Watson 20)

For many individuals in the LGBTQ+ community, finding healthcare professionals who understand their identities and are receptive to their needs can be difficult. Many in the community feel that they have difficulties finding a practice that will respect their identity and provide them with effective and reliable care. For those specifically in the transgender community, these difficulties can increase exponentially, as many doctors are not properly trained to address the specific health needs that transgender individuals can often require. By his senior year, recent Keene State College graduate Kennedy Redden had noticed that both the staff of his school’s health center and the nearby Planned Parenthood had a distinct lack of knowledge about the needs of transgender students. Because of this, Kennedy decided to write a Transgender Health Manual for the school to use in the general education of its healthcare professionals as his senior capstone piece in Community Health.

Sexual and social stigmas largely affect the health of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population. While many reports from the Institute of Medicine, Healthy People 2020 and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recognize a need to improve the quality of health care, barriers still remain. LGBT patients face legal discrimination, especially with insurance, a lack of social programs, and limited access to providers competent in LGBT health care. Although the Affordable Care Act increased access to care for LGBT patients, unless these patients feel understood by providers and develop trust in the system, they are not likely to utilize care. Healthcare providers need to recognize how these vulnerabilities, as well as persistent racism and stigma linked to sexual orientation and gender identity, make the healthcare needs of LGBT patients more challenging than the general population. Healthcare providers also need to promote cultural competence within this population and broaden their clinical lens to include health promotion, in addition to addressing concerns mentioned above within the population. Additionally, medical and nursing schools need to ensure that future providers are adequately educated by including information about this population in the curriculum.

Issues that prevent or hinder trans people from receiving hysterectomies include healthcare coverage, financial resources, lack of willing surgical teams to perform the procedure, and lack of competent surgeons (Van Trotsenburg, 2009). Healthcare continues to be a major factor that prevents trans people from getting the proper treatment that they deserve. According to Dickey et al., (2016) in 2008, data were collected and discovered that 19% of TGNC respondents were uninsured, with higher rates of insurance among African Americans and those living in the southern regions of the United States. A history of discrimination and prejudice has compromised their education, housing and health care (Unger, 2014).

Coming out as a transgender, identifying with a gender expression that differs from the assigned sex, has proven to be quite difficult through the ages. While the acceptance of transgender people has grown significantly higher throughout the years, people’s stance on them are still quite divided, and the uphill battle for transgender rights has proven this. Just giving transgenders the right to simply go to the bathroom they identify with has shown to be controversial according to the TIME cover Battle of the Bathroom. The TIME magazine makes sure to note the problem defiantly “far more than public facilities” (Scherer par. 9). Transgender rights are a problem that Jamison Green, president for World Professional Association for Transgender Health, thoroughly addresses in a report written by Alan Greenblatt for CQ Researcher. Jamison Green’s specific purpose in that report is to justify why transgender people deserve basic human rights like everybody else, as shown in society, through his use of facts, qualifiers, figurative language, counterarguments, and appeals to logic and values.

There are many minorities in the United States of America making it one of the largest melting pots in the world. Unfortunately, due to the vast variety of people, there are many minorities that lack the proper access to healthcare resources that cater to their healthcare needs both mentally and physically. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community, also known as the LGBT community, face many hurdles when it comes to receiving the proper healthcare. They also encompass many different races, religions, ethnicities and social classes. According to a recent national and state-level population-based surveys, “8 million adults in the US are lesbian, gay, or bisexual, comprising 3.5% of the adult population” (Gates, 2011). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people face many challenges and barriers accessing the proper health services. Many of the challenges the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community faces stems from