The Sorry State of Transgender Health Care
The Huffington Post
By Joanne Herman
07 July, 2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-herman/the-sorry-state-of-transg_b_635685.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-herman/the-sorry-state-of-transg_b_635685.html)
I often write about how transgender people who need to access hormone therapy and/or surgery (not all do) must go through one of the most rigorous pre-qualification processes of any medical procedure. But while medical and mental health professionals have focused much attention on setting the hurdles of qualification, relatively little has been focused on either the reality of the qualification process or what comes after it.
Half the problem with lack of access to transgender healthcare is the current treatment model (shaped after institutions like Hopkins that believe in specialists for everything).
This is more visible in the EU where university ran "gender identity clinics"(s) are often the only affordable way to obtain therapy, hormone treatment, and surgery.
In the US, this manifests as the perceived need for specialists (see university of minnesota program in human sexuality) and hospitals for genital surgery (when the majority of patients don't require the level of care afforded by a hospital).
Until there is less centralization, I don't see access improving, not less social bias against patients addressed.
(and no, I'm not going to med school to hold the hands of so called medical professionals and play by the old rules in a time when affordable healthcare is needed)