Health Disparities In The Transgender

Regarding access to healthcare, transgender individuals often face the most obstructive barriers when attempting to receive care. Whether they are seeking access to hormones, therapy, general health services, reproductive healthcare, or specialty healthcare, transgender patients typically cannot get what they need without jumping through many hoops or hiding their identities. This occurs especially so in cases of intersecting identities -- where an individual is not just transgender, but is transgender and a person of color, disabled, gay, indigenous, undocumented, poor, etc. These intersecting identities interact in multifaceted ways to produce even more barriers for trans individuals seeking healthcare due to healthcare provider bias, insurance requirements, and doctors’ general unwillingness to help coupled with inaccessibility founded on racism, transphobia, homophobia, mental illness stigmatization, etc.

Transgender inclusive healthcare has been a hot debate topic over the last couple of years throughout the world. Transgender inclusive healthcare is healthcare that provides covering for counseling, hormone replacement therapy, and gender confirmation surgeries. There are different ways for individuals, as well as groups, to move this discussion forward and make real change happen. This piece will look at three different feminist groups and how they would approach making transgender inclusive healthcare available for people. The Marxist feminists who believe capitalism is the key, radical feminists who believe a complete overhaul of the current societal norms is necessary, and lastly the liberal feminists who believe in the individualistic approach to issues.

The healthcare needs of the transgender community are complex and as such they face many obstacles in finding and receiving quality medical care. A transgender individual is someone who identifies with a sex different from the one assigned to them at birth. How an individual defines their sexual orientation and gender identity can cause significant clinical, administrative, and financial difficulties when seeking healthcare services. The article “Transgender patients need more access to competent, compassionate care” by Debra Beaulieu-Volk addresses some of the challenges faced by this community and offers suggestions to the healthcare professionals on improving transgender patient care.

This is a basic right for all people to have, it is not fair to discriminate and “leave out” the transgender community. To make the changes needed to transition, transgender people must be able to have medical insurance. It is not only a basic right but it also will help their processes to their transition to run smoothly. Medicare is now allowed to fund offset medical coast of gender transition and has warned insurers that not allowing coverage can be discriminatory (Eliperin). The American people need to figure out a way to help the transgender community fight for their right to have medical insurance. These transitions coast millions of dollars and without the insurance, the transition will coast millions of dollars. Insurance plans have come out and stated that they will not help with transitions due to the risk. This right has been taken away from the transgender community and is not a fair claim. The insurance companies should provide for the person asking for the transition, but talk about the risk and not limit them to the impossible. Many Insurance plans do not help men or women who desire to change sex, due to the fact of risk during the surgery that can lead to blood clots or death (Martin). Having a major risk facture is not a reason punish a person who is desiring a change. The insurance companies should rethink their plans. Health insurance is a right that every person should

Although, an increased number of transgender people are seeking psychotherapy, not many therapists are finding themselves in the role of assessor for medically necessary gender realignment procedures (Budge, 2015). There is a guideline for medical treatment for transgender population and that the document has been widely adopted by major medical insurance companies in the United States (e.g., Atena, BlueCrossBrueShield, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare) if such procedures are covered in the individual plan. Due to more transgender people seeking psychotherapy, it is important that clinicians are aware of this population’s unique needs and experiences. Moreover, the clinicians need to be aware that they may need to serve as assessor for the client’s eligibility and readiness for medical procedures. There is a risk that the assessment and treatment process to become another place for the transgender clients to experience negative judgement, stigmatization, discrimination, and rejection. The risk would increase when the mental health provider has a limited training and comprehension of this population (see Coolhart, Provancher, Hager, & Wang, 2008). Preoperative psychological health is critical in postoperative adjustment and satisfaction. After all, the primary aim of medical procedures is to enhance mental well-being and self-fulfillment of the individual (De Cuypere & Vercruysse, 2009). Therefore, the mental health providers who involve in the process of gender

There are many misconceptions and surrounding what it means to be a transgendered person. Some may assume that transgendered people are just confused, that perhaps a “butch” woman got pushed over the edge – or the same for a flamboyant man. But this is not so, once you consider all the diversity of trans people as a whole – there are feminine transgender men, as are there masculine transgender women. The stereotype for trans men or women, as it were, is usually highly inaccurate. A transgendered person is simply someone whose self-identity does not conform unambiguously to conventional male or female gender. Over the year of 2012, over 221 trans people over the world were killed in violent and radical hate crimes. Over half of these

For the second effect of being transgender, they will be affected by emotional problem within themselves or from other people. Due to social pressures and family pressures, transgender people may face a higher level of depression or anxiety than most people. Why is this so? Well, firstly, they will face depression or mood swing due to the operation that they had undergone. This is because they are not really well and they might feel ashamed with other people, because they know who he or she was before they had been operated. They might also have problem with their anger issues due to the medication that they consume to be a new person that they wanted for. Their anger might affect other people or it might only affect them and caused them to

Over the course of this paper, we will take a comprehensive look at information regarding the Transgender community issue in reference to four key sociology concepts. First, we will review information highlighting how transgender people come to the forefront of the public eye as well as the bathroom use uproar sweeping the nation. Next, we will review facts showcasing how transgender people go against the social norm of associating gender with a person’s given birth sex. Thirdly, we will review information showcasing the cultural inconsistencies throughout the nation when it comes to the acceptance of transgender people. Fourthly, material will showcase the actions transgender people must face in several states throughout the nation when they partake in social deviance through body alterations. Next, data highlighting how groups on each side of the issues are struggling to gain social control over the public opinion of the transgender community. Now, the transgender issue in America incubuses a plethora of sociological concepts; however, the four key concepts listed above will allow readers to understand the major issues society has with acceptance of this community.

Although trans people have experienced gender issues for centuries, their issues have only now become a topic of main stream media. With the lack of research and open communication in regards to this group, there has been many assumptions made in terms of health care for them. Gender reassignment has been linked back up to the 18th century when a surgeon named Dr. Thomas Brand made an eight-page case study regarding the surgical reassignment of a seven-year-old’s genitalia from female to male (Warren, 2014). With his research being one of the first of its kind, his work was met with much resistance from his colleagues. They simply were not ready to try to understand and connect with trans people and did not want to hear what Dr. Brand had

Among the most important findings were statistics revealing 28% of respondents reported postponement of care due to discrimination and affordability, refusal of care at a rate of 19% and half of the respondents reported even having to teach their healthcare providers about transgender care. 21 Discrimination and the lack of provider knowledge regarding transgender health needs are directly related to the lack of access to quality health care. 12, 20Interviews of both transgender patients and providers regarding stigma revealed “ambivalence and uncertainty” from both parties due to provider’s lack of knowledge regarding the patients specific needs, which served to “reinforce the medical power and authority in the face of provider uncertainty.”18 For this medically marginalized community, it is important to acknowledge healthcare providers, themselves, recognize the lack of knowledge necessary to provide quality care for these specific needs.19 Restrictions to access increase the risk for depression, suicide, and HIV. But on the contrary, access to medical attention has been linked to high-risk behavior reduction as well as the use of safe hormone therapies. However, there are still areas of healthcare that are underutilized and perhaps even unattainable within the transgender

Common services may be denied because of lack of know-how or suffering with a transgender consumer. To align the gender and body with the experienced feeling of self, traditionally as a critical a part of social transition-faraway from the intercourse assigned at an individual's birth, transsexuals and some other members require medical offerings (for example, hormone substitute, facial electrolysis, or surgeries and different systems, as appropriate to the character). Despite ongoing proof that the enormous majority who access such services acquire congruence and wellness both physically and

The stigma and discrimination faced by transgender people (i.e. those whose gender differs from their sex at birth) have been associated with increased risk for depression, suicide, and HIV . ). Transgender people also face significant barriers to accessing health care. A national study found double the rate of unemployment among transgender people, compared to the general population. Not surprisingly, transgender people were also less likely than the general population to have health insurance and less likely to be insured by an employer . When considering HIV risk for transgender persons, it is critical to remember that simply being a transgender person does not place a person at risk. Instead, health care providers should

Trans or transgender is an umbrella term used to describe those who move away from and do not identify with the gender that they were born. It encompasses all people who do not fit into a binary conception of gender identity or expression. It is a group with diverse identities and expressions, and that differ from stereotypical gender norms. Some transgender choose to modify their bodies to varying degrees, whether through surgeries, or hormone therapies, while others choose to live without surgical intervention, and change their body and behavior in other ways, and live as their chosen gender (Houghtaling, Melissa 2015). The most important thing to note is that transgender is not a reference to one’s sexual identity, or preference, but it is more about ones gender expression, which refers to a presentation of a person’s behaviors, interests, and/or affinities that are considered feminine, masculine, or some combination thereof (Serano, Julia. 2007). The umbrella term of trans or transgender includes, but is not limited to, people who identify as transgender, trans woman, trans man, transsexual, cross-dressers, or gender non-conforming, gender variant or gender queer.

What does transgender mean essentially? Transgender is a person who feels that the gender they were born with, is not the one that they identify themselves with. Despite contrary belief, they are real authentic people and deserve treatment as such. We need to respect them as individuals, respect everyone 's right to privacy, and encourage them to fall in love with themselves holistically.

It must be first considered that all of the LGBT community concerns this issue. Transgenderism refers to identity while being Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual refers to sexuality. Thus, a transgender person may sexually consider themselves as lesbian, gay or bisexual. This will be further explained in the paper. All of the LGBT community is within the scope of this paper.