Transgender patients are dodging doctors

[suzifrommd]

Transgender patients are dodging doctors

http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2015/04/062.html

By Marcene Robinson

Release Date: April 24, 2015

Discussing your sexual history with a doctor, or anyone for that matter, can be an uncomfortable experience.

But for many transgender people, the conversation never takes place because they aren't seeking health care, according to Adrian Juarez, PhD, a public health nurse and assistant professor in the University at Buffalo School of Nursing.

Through a preliminary study examining HIV testing access and heath-based decision making in urban, transgender populations, Juarez found that social stigma, as well as a lack of affordability, keep many transgender people from pursuing needed care.

[iKate]

This is bizarre. One would think that trans people are at the doctor's office more so than cis people, to get hormones and other stuff, and that would keep our health monitored better.

[marsh monster]

I'm coming up on about 9 years of not going to a doctor for anything. My experience with them in the past hasn't been great and then sometimes the staff can be horrible even if the doctor themselves aren't.

[Tysilio]

This is bizarre. One would think that trans people are at the doctor's office more so than cis people, to get hormones and other stuff, and that would keep our health monitored better.

Unfortunately, there's nothing bizarre about it. Poor, minority people, who made up a large percentage of the population studied here ("urban" is code for these folks) very often don't have access to healthcare. As the article notes, many transgender women of color are HIV positive and are likely to face yet more discrimination and ill-treatment when they do try to access services.  Someone who is homeless, unemployed, and/or doing sex work to survive is more at risk than average for all sorts of health problems, and is likely to have a very rough time trying to deal with almost any healthcare system, assuming they can access it at all.

It's hardly surprising that they don't get the care they need. That said, I think "dodging doctors" is a remarkably insensitive way to describe the situation. Can we say "blaming the victim?"