Transgender Discrimination Study

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The National Transgender Discrimination Survey conducted in 2011 found that after interviewing over 6,400 transgender and gender-nonconforming people, 28% reported postponing medical treatment out of fear of discrimination. Furthermore, when transgender patients did seek care, 28% reported experiencing harassment in a medical setting and 19% of those surveyed have been refused care because of their transgender identity (NTDS). The transgender community faces many health concerns that go beyond accessing transition-related care. Transgender people are four times more likely to have HIV than the general population. Approximately one-fourth of transgender people reported using drugs or alcohol to cope with their transgender status. Finally, 41% …show more content…
QUESTION/THESIS
Education
Transgender people struggle to find providers equipped to respond to their specific medical needs. 50% of transgender people reported having to teach their providers about transgender healthcare (NTDS). This is a result of informational erasure or the lack of knowledge regarding transgender people or the assumption that such knowledge does not exist (Bradford 352). This is exemplified in the practice of omitting transgender people from health surveys and research or ignoring transgender health concerns in medical journals and area of study. Transgender patients also experience informational erasure in medical school's curriculum. A study done on 126 medical schools in Canada and the US showed that only 35% of schools include hormonal and surgical treatment and
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Only 27% of psychologists report a sufficient level of competence in working with gender diverse patients (Dickey 222). Moreover, support staff such as nurses are inadequately prepared to address the needs of gender-nonconforming people. In a Survey of over a thousand nursing school administrative leaders, 63% report never teaching LGBT health-related topics and the average time in the classroom devoted to LGBTQ healthcare was only 2.12 hours (Lim). Furthermore, on 0.16% of articles (8 out of approximately 5,000) from the top ten nursing journal in the country from 2005-2009 mentioned LGBT health (Eliason). This places transgender and gender nonconforming people in the excusable position of having to educate their providers on their medical needs as opposed to vice versa. Primary care providers report being completely lost as to where to refer transgender patients for care (Snelgrove). This is especially concerning in terms of primary care which is often where patients first go with health concerns in order to be referred to a specialist. If primary care providers are uncertain of where to refer transgender patients the patient is often stuck without direction and required to navigate their transition alone. One