Transgender Womens Health Care

Transgender Womens Health Care

Review of Literature
Clementina Canava
The University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract
Recently the LGBTQ movement has grown throughout the United States. Issues
concerning the movement and the people that live in the community have come into mainstream
news. Throughout the years most of everyones focus has been the right for same sex couples to
get married. What has most recently come into mainstream news is the Transgender community
and the issues that this group of people have been facing. With this issue there are several
different main variables that affect this issue. Of course the medical, social, and cultural points of
views. This paper is going to focus on the Healthcare issue for Transgender Women in the United
States.

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Transgender Womens Health Care

A Review of the Literature
Health and healthcare have been part of the major issues in our society. What has recently
become more mainstream in terms of news coverage is the health and healthcare issues regarding
transgender women. Since transgender people are a part of the LGBTQ movement, health and
healthcare in particular become a social issue along with being a medical issue. It is important to
bring awareness to this issue both socially and medically.
Socially it is important to share knowledge about the transgender community and to even
break it down into basic questions like what it means when one considers themselves a
transgender person. Medically it is important to educate health care providers and transgender
people of the proper treatment that they should be providing or receiving.
These four question use certain areas in the research to be analyzed:
1. How the social aspect of this issue effects the medical aspect?
2. Where is there a lack of medical information or misunderstanding?
3. What are the leading causes of this issue?
4. How can this issue be resolved?
For this issue it is important to understand the difference better sex and gender. Sex has to do
with the physical biology of someone which has to do with someones reproductive organs.
Gender has to do with social and cultural differences that are associated with a certain sex.

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How the social aspect of this issue effects the medical aspect?
In many places such as the United States in general being Transgender is seen as being
not part of the norm. This affects the medical aspect because since it is not really mainstream
news there is not a lot of awareness when it comes to the basic healthcare needs for this
community. The issues that Transgender Women face on a day to day basis very based on
different social aspects. Discrimination in the work place is common for a transgender woman to
face. Trans people in the US are twice as likely to be unemployed.8 90% report experiencing
harassment, mistreatment or discrimination at work (2015). For many transgender women this
discrimination leads these women into the sex workforce in order to provide for themselves. This
can also make it difficult to afford medical care. For transgender women of color the
discrimination might be different just because race and racism becomes a factor. Unfortunately
there has been twenty one transgender women of color murdered this year and the majority were
transgender women of color. When most of these womens murders were confirmed by the
authorities, the authorities identified these women as males. Suicide is a big issue. A 2014 study
found that 46 percent of transmen and 42 percent of transwomen attempt suicide in their
lifetimes, according to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, a report published by
the Williams Institute and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. (Aguilar, 2015).
This is just a very brief description of what discrimination against transgender women can cause.
Just simply not being able to feel comfortable in a medical setting can be a reason why it might
be hard to have a regular physician. The shock probably of having to explain to health care
providers as they are having to strip down and getting ready to do a physical assessment some of
the insensitivity that this population experiences (Webster, 2013). These social aspects can

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effect healthcare for transgender women, and can be part of the reasons why this community in
general does not like to seek out medical attention, or cannot seek medical attention.
Where is there a lack of medical information or misunderstanding?
There are many discrepancies of medical information. There seems to be some
misunderstandings on both the health care providers part, as well as the patience. Research
shows that there are about 30 to 40 percent of the transgender population that dont have regular
or primary care physicians (Elliott, 2013). Since there is a high percentage of transgender
women that do not seek medical attention these women turn to the internet and other sources that
are not health care providers in order to get their information. This is a big problem because like
I mentioned in the beginning of the paragraph this can cause many discrepancies and
misinformation concerning medical care.
For transgender women (transwomen), utilization of transition-related medical care,
including hormone therapy, breast augmentation, and genital surgery, may be a protective
factor for health disparities in mental health, substance use, and HIV, which are all known
to disproportionately impact transwomen (Wilson et al., 2015).
It is important for transgender women as well as heath care providers to have the information
that they need in order to give the patient the best care that can be done. With this there needs to
be more research and information being done and provided in order to inform the transgender
community, health care providers, as well as the general public of anyone that would like to learn
more about this issue.

What are the leading causes of this issue?

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There are several variables that cause this issue. One of the main causes is the
discrimination not only in health care, but socially as well.
Lack of access is due and part to one of several things. One of them being the lack of
knowledge or awareness of the transgender patient population, as well as the insensitivity
that is experienced, as well as the hostilities that can occur when one transgender person
encounters the health care environment (Elliott, 2013).
Like stated in the quote above lack of understanding for the patient, as well as the lack of
knowledge of how to care for the patient medically as well as emotionally. So, providers
because they may encounter a transgender person at some point in their setting it is really
important for them to understand the significant differences that exist when taking care of
someone who is transgender versus who is not transgender (Elliott, 2013). As a patient it is
important to feel comfortable in a medical setting. It is important for the physician to use the
proper pro nouns and the preferred name of the individual in order to help the patient feel
comfortable. This will make a big difference in the experience for the individual. There should
be insurances that are open to transgender health needs. For example one insurance might cover
hormone therapy, while another might cover surgery. However, there are not many insurances
that cover a good amount of what is necessary to be considered good transgender health care.
Another leading cause is the lack of information on this topic for both the transgender population
as well as health care providers. In a study comparing quality of life between transwomen on
and off hormones, hormonal therapy was associated with higher scores in general and mental
health (Wilson et al., 2015). Lack of understanding and knowledge are some of the biggest
causes of this issue.
How can this issue be resolved?

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The main thing to get a handle on the situation is to make sure that patients, healthcare
providers, and even the general public knows what it means to be transgender and to not be so
quick to judge. Even though this might be seen as a more controversial issue everyone needs to
have health care and have proper healthcare. There are so many women that need to find a
physician that will best suit them and their condition. This issue can be resolved in the way that
transgender women as well as men will get proper health care one day, but there will always be
someone that will not agree with the transgender community since this is seen as a controversial
issue.
In conclusion, this review of literature researched areas of transgender women health care
that can answer the following questions:
1. How the social aspect of this issue effects the medical aspect?
2. Where is there a lack of medical information or misunderstanding?
3. What are the leading causes of this issue?
4. How can this issue be resolved?
This information needs to get out more and more into mainstream news in order to provide a
group of people basic rights to get provided with proper medical care. There needs to be more
research being done in order to give proper medical care, and it needs to be released to the public
in order to not have misinformation. Knowledge and understanding of this issue will help put an
end to this issue.

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References
Aguilar, J. (2015). Transgender people face maze of difficulties with health insurance, doctors.
Retrieved October 21, 2015 from http://www.dallasnews.com/lifestyles/health-andfitness/health/20150604-transgender-people-face-maze-of-difficulties-with-health-insurancedoctors.ece
New Internationalists (2015, Oct). TransgenderTHE FACTS. Retrieved from http://0search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=a9h&AN=109426379&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Webster, C., Elliott, A., (2013, January 5). Health Matters: Transgender Womens Health.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyg3EBbR5c0
Wilson, E., Chen, Y., Arayasirikul, S., Wenzel, C., Raymond, H., (2015, Feb). Connecting the
Dots: Examining Transgender Womens Utilization of Transition-Related Medical Care and
Associations with Mental Health, Substance Use, and HIV. Retrieved from http://0search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=a9h&AN=101114173&site=ehost-live&scope=site