Transgender patients confront bias in health care
By Crosscurrents Pro... on February 7, 2011 - 5:40pm
By Lonny Shavelson
http://kalwnews.org/audio/2011/02/07/transgender-patients-confront-bias-health-care_831228.html (http://kalwnews.org/audio/2011/02/07/transgender-patients-confront-bias-health-care_831228.html)
Millions of aging baby boomers are tumbling headlong into their Medicare years – where they and an overburdened medical system will struggle to get along. But in spite of the way we tend to lump boomers together, they don't come in standard sizes, or have uniform ideas or lifestyles. Lonny Shavelson reports about transgender boomers and a health care system that seems unready – and even unwilling – to take care of them.
At first glance, Morgan Ruzzo's mammogram seems routine. She's 58 years old and gets checked out every year.
But Ruzzo is a bit different from the usual mammogram patient – because she's also going to need a prostate exam. That's right, prostate: the male sex organ. Eight years ago Morgan Ruzzo was Joey Ruzzo, a 50-year-old high-rise construction ironworker.