Some trans people on Twitter have been using the hashtag #TransHealthFail to share the bad experiences they've had with doctors and other health care providers.
There was a time I had to take a pregnancy test before getting a chest x-ray despite lacking uterus. #transhealthfail
People tweeted about experiences that were insulting and offensive...
This doctor then told me that at med school in NYC, he would take new students out to sightsee "transvestite prostitutes". #transhealthfail
That created barriers to transition...
3 years ago I saw a gender therapist (a cis woman) who told me I wasn't "trans enough" to transition. #transhealthfail
That showed that even some facilities that claim to specialize in LGBT patients need more training:
getting misgendered in my discharge papers from a psych unit that specialized in lgbt patients #transhealthfail
The hashtag was started by MyTransHealth, a new organization that wanted to make the public more aware of the barriers to good health care trans people face.
We’ve all experienced a trans health care fail. Here are a few we’ve heard since announcing MyTransHealth. Share yours with #transhealthfail
Lack of quality health care is well-known in the trans community, MyTransHealth co-founder Amelia Gapin told BuzzFeed Life.
"We wanted something that really started the conversation we think needs to happen and we wanted to involve more of our community," Gapin said.
Using the hashtag, trans people shared stories about therapists who seemed to lack some basic training:
Me: "I'm trans. Non-binary." Psych: "You don't LOOK transgender." "Wait. So does that make your boyfriend a homosexual?" #transhealthfail
Doctors who didn't know how to treat transgender patients...for ailments that had nothing to do with their status as trans:
"I don't know how to treat a transgender." "... I'm here about joint pain I've had since before starting HRT?" #transhealthfail
Front office staff who didn't understand why it might be uncomfortable or unsafe for a person to have their previous name on display in a waiting room:
GP receptionist says theres nothing they can do about your full legal name on a big screen in the waiting room to call you #transhealthfail
The serious delays in getting hormone replacement therapy (HRT):
The only way to prescribe HRT meds to a minor without a 6-12 month wait time in Mass. US is to lie to the state. #transhealthfail
Lack of affordable options for gender confirming surgery:
My body holds me back. I cant afford the medical care I need to change this #transhealthfail #transgender #topsurgery
Life-threatening errors made by doctors who might not fully understand hormone replacement therapy:
Whem my self-medicating friend caught a life-threatening mistake my pcp made re: hrt, I decided I'm safer self-medicating #transhealthfail
The frustration of not even having a box to check on intake forms:
Going to Planned Parenthood and not having a gender option that fits, or a write in. #transhealthfail
And the trauma caused by a doctor who won't acknowledge your identity:
Saw private clinician. Tells me he doesn't think I'm trans, consistently misgenders and deadnames me in report afterwards. #TransHealthFail
And intentionally disregards your gender and name, instead referring to you by your assigned sex and name at birth.
The #TransHealthFail tweets illustrate just how much trans people need quality medical care, but so do the statistics.
This is exactly what MyTransHealth wants to fix. And now it can start: On July 30 it announced that its project was funded.
Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who’s supported us! We couldn’t be more excited to announce MyTransHealth IS FUNDED!
"We were floored by the response and that people trusted and believed in us enough to do that. This actually gave us a lot of momentum and helped us reach our funding goal that night. I was shocked, myself," Gapin said via email.
It will launch first in New York City and the Miami metro area. They hope to soon expand to expand to San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
