Transition point
The unmet medical needs of transgender people
By Tracie White
http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2012spring/article7.htmlOn a September morning about 10 years ago, Lyman Miller, PhD, showed up for an appointment with his family doctor in Half Moon Bay intending to ask for a prescription for female hormones. He was 57 years old, married for a second time, with two grown children. He stood over 6 feet tall, and sometimes wore a rough beard. And he wanted to become a woman.
His doctor, Lorraine Page, MD, thought she knew Miller fairly well. She knew he was a father and a husband. But she had no idea that since childhood he had felt he was truly female. "I'd never discussed this with any doctor," Miller says. "It took some psyching up. It was embarrassing. I was nervous." The doctor, understandably, didn't have a clue.
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It took some time, and conversation, but eventually the two came to an understanding. Miller got a prescription for estrogen. And Page headed off to do research. Like most doctors, she knew very little about how to meet the medical needs of a transgender patient, particularly one headed down the road toward transitioning. But she was open to learning. Miller gave her some journal articles about recommended hormone dosages in such cases, and she turned to the Internet.
