Lilac, really? If the sex ed classes I'd attended as a kid had been at all geared toward lgbt people (instead of one man one woman within a marriage stuff), maybe I wouldn't have tuned them out, and I wouldn't have become such a stereotypical statistic (homeless teenaged welfare mom).
If trans people were respected and recognized by health care professionals, maybe I would have been comfortable seeking medical care when I got PID. Because it went untreated for so long (I was at the time living as male, sleeping with a bi guy, but didn't know the words for trans and only knew that clinics assumed I was a prostitute or on drugs), my kidneys shut down and my ovaries and uterus got filled with massive amounts of scar tissue. I had to be admitted to the ICU and kept on antibiotics and fluids for days. Because I was scared, because doctors and nurses don't understand people like us. I almost died.
Just this year I had a gynecologist tell me I'm wrong, that there's no such thing as transgender, that I'll be a woman until I'm dead and so I might as well look forward to either being a woman or being dead. She also stopped treating the problem I was there for in the first place. I found another gynecologist, and she's merely passive-aggressively transphobic, which I'm settling for. She doesn't listen to me or treat the problems I go to her for help with, but she at least doesn't tell me I'm a woman. She agreed to perform surgical sterilization. That's great. My expectations are extremely low. I certainly don't expect dignity.
My regular physician is intimidated by me. He made it quite clear that my transgender status puts me way out of his league as a professional, and that he doesn't feel comfortable treating me. We're not talking about transition care, but about standard healthcare. Colds and infections and immunizations and stuff. He thinks he's not qualified to give me basic healthcare. Like I'm some kind of exotic zoo specimen.
LGBT do have unique medical/health needs. We wouldn't, if providers were just a little more educated about us, but as it stands, we do.
My little rant here isn't even addressing research, which is what the article is actually about. The people who worked on it were from the fields of "mental health, biostatistics, clinical medicine, adolescent health and development, aging, parenting, behavioral sciences, HIV research, demography, racial and ethnic disparities, and health services." We are pathetically underrepresented in so many aspects of science and medicine that we might as well not exist, as far as a lot of people are concerned.
Eating better food and exercising is not something you need a doctor to tell you to do, anyway.
