Raise You Hand…

If you ever dreaded going to the emergency room because you are trans*.

I know that I have but I had to finally go there even though I dreaded every moment. There is a good article in the Canadian MedicalXpress about survey that addresses our fears in going to the ER,

Transgender patients have special needs in the ER

While approximately one-third of transgender (trans) patients needed emergency care in the previous year, only 71 percent of those with self-reported need indicated they were able to obtain care, which researchers theorize may be due to "perceptions and previous experiences of trans-related discrimination or poor care." The Canadian study, the first to analyze emergency department avoidance, use and experience by trans people, was published online Friday in Annals of Emergency Medicine ("Reported Emergency Department Avoidance, Utilization and Experiences of Transgender Persons in Ontario, Canada: Results from a Respondent-Driven Sampling Survey")

"Patients who have had trans-specific negative experiences in other parts of the health care system may defer care until they are desperate and need the ER," said lead study author Greta Bauer, PhD, MPH, of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry in London, Ontario, Canada. "The good news is that nearly three-quarters of those who needed emergency care were able to get it in the ER. The bad news is that so many still were not."

I avoided going to the doctors or the ER many time in fear of what they would say or how they would treat me in the emergency room. I know someone who was refused treatment in an emergency room and they used derogatory words to describe her. I know a couple of trans-people who were to by doctors “I don’t treat your kind.”

So there is an inborn fear of doctors in the trans-community that this report addresses and hopefully will help to alleviate some of our fears.