Should I Tell my Doctor I'm Trans?

[Janes Groove]

I didn't realize that Colorado was so conservative as a state. Colorado Springs yes, as one goes north, it changes.

It's not but there is one medicaid clinic in Denver that is.  All of the other medicaid clinics offer transgender services, but this one is associated with a particular religion.  I was just unfortunate enough to be going there when I started to transition.  So I just walked down the street and went to an informed consent Planned Parenthood clinic.  Since then I've switched to Denver Health and they are great. I have no complaints.

It starts getting conservative when you go north too. Or east. Or west.
Except Boulder of course.

[Kendra]

Vincent - in that case, if I was in your situation I would definitely tell my doctor. 

If your local college has transgender students it's possible a student organization there might know more.  Every college I went to had a student union building or center, paper bulletin boards with meeting notices.  If you inquire, they might not ask if you're a student there - for this sort of extracurricular meeting you might be able to just show up.  Just an idea. 

[Ryuichi13]

You should most definitely tell your doctors that you are trans, and make sure they all work together as well!

When I first started taking T nearly 10 months ago, I knew that it would make my body create more red blood cells, which would raise my already high blood pressure, for which I take meds for.  I was ready for it, so when I started having headaches, dizzy spells and palpitations, I made an appointment with my PCP, to who I had come out as trans to a few months prior.  She gave me an EKG, and it showed cardiac changes. [emoji44] 

She immediately called my pharmacy and issued a higher dose of one of my blood pressure medications and had her nurse walk me across the hall to a cardiac clinic (which I hadn't even noticed was there before.) 

They made appointments for stress tests, heart echo and whatnot on the spot.  I also made sure that my new cardiac doctor knew I was trans.  I'm his first trans patient. My PCP has at least three trans patients, but I'm her first FtM.

After being checked out completely, I was medically cleared.  My higher dose meds are now working beautifully, and my blood pressure and heart are back to being background issues.  Let me tell you, this past April and May were the scariest months I've had in a long time! 

My endo, PCP and new cardiac doctors all co-ordinate my blood tests (I ask what tests they need me to have done), and I keep them all in the loop whenever I see them. 

Sure this was an extreme case, but it hopefully shows you what could happen if your doctors are unaware of your transgender status.

Good luck!

Ryuichi

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[jodyh]

hi
well im in the uk so we have diiferent rules that cover the whole country,they cant denigh u medical treatment. as far as telling,well it depends on ur doctor really.some just arnt interested and some are great. mine is great.he talks straight,understands the problems,wont let me rush into anything and answeres my questions no matter how silly or crude or embarasing.actually we got to the point embarrassment has dissapeared. like he said hes there to give medical and mental help,to him its no problem.

[steph2.0]

I'm struggling with this question myself right now. My primary care physician is ten minutes from home, but my therapist and endo are in a clinic that specializes in trans care and are 1:20 away. I just had my first blood tests from the endo, and a lot of them duplicated the tests done by my local doctor. I'd love to get them coordinated, but I'm in the middle of a very conservative area, and am not confident of a positive outcome if I tell my local clinic I'm trans. My endo would be happy to take over my primary care, but I really don't want to drive that far (and pay all the tolls) for some sniffles.

Complicating matters is the local clinic has one or two MDs, with nurse practitioners working under them. That's not a problem generally - my absolute favorite caregivers in the past have been NPs. The problem here is I never know which one I'll be seeing. I want to develop a one-on-one relationship with my doctor. I'm usually surprised by who walks in during my appointments.

I was worried enough about it all that I started looking around for younger women doctors, thinking, as noted above, that they may be more accepting. I went to two offices and asked if I could get just five minutes for a private meet and greet with the doctor to see if they would be ok with it. In the first, the receptionist said sure, we'll set up an appointment on the computer, have a seat. She then wandered around the office, yakking with coworkers, getting coffee, etc. After 20 minutes I walked out. The place was kind of shabby, so I wasn't excited about it anyway.

The next office seemed neat and clean, and the receptionist was friendly, but would not set up any kind of appointment unless I initiated a records transfer from my current doctor. I wasn't going to do that until I knew this new doctor was willing to take me on. So I walked out of there, too.

Note that none of these people knew why I wanted to talk with the doctor, and I was presenting as my male self, so at that point trans issues didn't enter into it. I guess the docs around here just aren't hungry enough.

My labs follow up with my primary doc is next Monday. I'm leaning toward telling whoever I end up seeing, and letting the chips fall where they may. The further I go into transition, the more courage I've been able to muster, and it's my health that's at stake. Of course, I can talk big now, but I may turn to jelly when the time comes.

Any advice is appreciated...

Stephanie

[KathyLauren]

I'm leaning toward telling whoever I end up seeing, and letting the chips fall where they may.

That sounds like a good plan, Steph.  Chances are they'll be fine, in which case you avoid the hassle of looking for a new doctor.  If they aren't, well, then you'll know.

[Nina]

I told my family doctor a few months prior to living full time. I was nervous as heck thinking she'd maybe not want to be my family doctor. When I told her, and that I was hesitant, she said that was silly.
Then in early 2015, six months after my GCS, I asked for a physical. When she saw Dr. Brassard work, first thing she said was: Incredible!
She was blown away how good my vag looked.
She says I'm still her only trans patient who's had surgery.

[steph2.0]

I told my family doctor a few months prior to living full time. I was nervous as heck thinking she'd maybe not want to be my family doctor. When I told her, and that I was hesitant, she said that was silly.

Being originally from a border state, I love just about everything about Canada except the weather. There are always exceptions, but generally speaking they're just a much kinder people. I'm not surprised your doctor was completely professional.

Now that I live in Conservative Central, I tend to worry. Maybe too much. We'll see.

Steph

[Nina]

Being originally from a border state, I love just about everything about Canada except the weather. There are always exceptions, but generally speaking they're just a much kinder people. I'm not surprised your doctor was completely professional.

Now that I live in Conservative Central, I tend to worry. Maybe too much. We'll see.

Steph

While Canada is far from perfect, I'm fortunate to live where there are less obstacles for trans folks. Surgeries are covered by most provinces, transgender folks have no fear being ejected from the military, little in the way of hate crimes that have been reported.

Lol about the cold. Anything above 70F, I'm cranky and irritable. Ask my hubby

[steph2.0]

Lol about the cold. Anything above 70F, I'm cranky and irritable. Ask my hubby

Almost the opposite here. Ask my wife!

Where I grew up we learned a little Canadian history. I particularly appreciated the way the country was named, by drawing three Scrabble tiles out of a bag.

"C, ay!"
"N, ay!"
"D, ay!"

Alternate facts from your Southern neighbors. [emoji16]

Steph

[Gertrude]

I am going to switch doctors as the one I went to is conservative. I looked up lgbt in my insurance site and found a practice that treats lgbt as a specialty. It's 15 miles versus 2.5, but I will live with that.


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[AnneK]

I think you should, as they should know about anything that can affect your health.  But then, I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV.   

[Kendra]

I can't imagine not telling my hairdresser I am transgender and I mentioned this fact within the first few minutes of meeting her.  She was super accepting, we have become good friends since then - but if she had seemed too uncomfortable or insisted on the wrong gender of hair cut I would have bailed on the spot.  It's my hair.  I am sure you already know where I am going with this. 

A qualified health care professional needs to know in order to give you the best care.  If they can't handle the fact you are transgender they are in the wrong field.  If someone has a chip on their shoulder I wouldn't trust them to treat a common cold.  I expect in future generations, any health care professional that gives a patient a hard time for being transgender should lose their medical certification.

[Roll]

I'm going through this debate right now as well, but seemingly a bit earlier on in the process (that I might be/probably am trans, but not ready to declare outright and really set wheels in motion). I'm currently trying to figure out something therapy related to really get started, but the situation here is just awful. (Coastal Georgia, which is super unpredictable on this sort of thing because you have a crazy mix of cliche deep south and a California beach town vibe going on simultaneously.) So In another thread inquiring into the therapy issue, Gertrude gave me a link to the GLMA provider search--and lo and behold there was exactly one name that came up for my area: my current GP who I was hours away from an appointment with (to get some generic propecia, so actually playing into this very thing :x). Sounds like a good thing, get the GP in on the ground floor and use him as a way to get recommendations for therapists that might be known locally but going under the radar or whatever. So a good sign, but unfortunately, despite the GLMA search result declaring him LGBT friendly it's still not that simple (is it ever?) for a few personal reasons I won't go into here for brevity, but mostly because I am not 100% sure I trust this clinic from a pure quality perspective (also unfortunately my only option in town, trans issues or otherwise). So leading up to the appointment I began a fierce debate on bringing it up with my GP that shot my anxiety so high when they took my blood pressure it raised some serious concern until they retook it after I calmed down a little. After the nurse left, the debate continued and I think I might have very well have been on the verge of going with just saying something... annnnnnd he walks in with a probably 24 year old medical student that looks like he is the villain in a movie about wall street corruption(that sort of overly attractive, a little bit *too* clean look). So there went that course of action. (Of course he asked if it was okay the med student sat in, but I am one of the least assertive people out there and offered a completely false overenthusiastic "sure, no problem!")

This has been a ton of fun so far.

[steph2.0]

A qualified health care professional needs to know in order to give you the best care.  If they can't handle the fact you are transgender they are in the wrong field.  If someone has a chip on their shoulder I wouldn't trust them to treat a common cold.  I expect in future generations, any health care professional that gives a patient a hard time for being transgender should lose their medical certification.

Yup, what you said! That's as it should be, but considering where I am, smack in the middle of Redneck Central, I'll be planning for the worst and hoping for the best. All of my interactions with people so far have been in safe spaces or known-LGBT-friendly areas, and with people I know I can trust. Despite my earlier jitters, I was fairly confident in a positive, or at least neutral outcome.

I've already decided that I'll be telling the doc, but this will be the first time where I really have no idea how it's going to turn out. And it's not just the doc that needs to be completely professional. There's a whole office of nurses, assistants, accountants, etc. who need to understand what HIPAA means. (For those outside the US, that's the act that ensures the privacy of health information, among other things.)

I was originally nervous about it, but I'm ever so slowly growing  a thicker skin. I'm to the point now where I'll be demanding professionalism. If you see a mushroom cloud over central Florida on Monday morning, you'll know we had a problem.

Details Monday afternoon!

Steph

[steph2.0]

considering where I am, smack in the middle of Redneck Central, I'll be planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

I've already decided that I'll be telling the doc, but this will be the first time where I really have no idea how it's going to turn out. And it's not just the doc that needs to be completely professional. There's a whole office of nurses, assistants, accountants, etc. who need to understand what HIPAA means.

Details Monday afternoon!

As promised, here's my report:

The world really is changing. The doc had absolutely no issues with it. I deliberately used terms like dysphoria and HRT, and he knew exactly what I was talking about. He made smart observations and asked intelligent questions. He knew the kind of prejudice we can be subject to, and assured me I'd get none of that from him. He even asked me for my recommendation for specialists so he could have them on file if other patients asked where to go for help. He made the suggestion before I did that we just keep it between ourselves for now and not put it - or the prescriptions for E, Spiro, and Finasteride - in the clinic records. And he offered to coordinate with my endo on blood tests so we don't double up.

My therapist keeps telling me that on the "Bad Outcome" scale of 1 to 10, take the level you're expecting and dial it back by 4. I'm still waiting for the first really bad reaction. I know it's coming some time. There's no avoiding it, but hopefully the good will outweigh the bad. So far so good.

Steph

[Kendra]

Stephanie that's excellent news!