Healthcare Providers and Transgender Community

The contemporary discrimination against transgender community members by healthcare providers causes several negative consequences. The most critical of them refers to inadequate access to healthcare services. Safer et al. (2016) state that insufficient knowledge of health professionals regarding the given topic is the main reason that leads to considerable health disparities related to transgender people. Financial and socioeconomic barriers may also be noted among those challenges that the transgender community has to encounter.

Most importantly, there is discrimination expressed in improper treatment of such patients. Many healthcare providers tend to practice abuse and bullying with regard to transgender persons. As a result, the latter reveal “a high prevalence of clinical depression (44.1%), anxiety (33.2%), and somatization (27.5%)” (as cited in Safer et al., 2016, p. 168). The fear of stigma also develops in the mentioned patients, and they lose the desire to visit medical organizations and receive appropriate healthcare services. At the same time, not only psychological but also adverse physical impacts should be identified.

Bradford, Reisner, Honnold, and Xavier (2013) reveal that such factors as a socioeconomic status, minority conditions, gender transition indicators, violence history, and other similar issues compose the basis for discrimination against transgender persons. In particular, the study shows that 41 percent of transgender participants reported about discrimination from healthcare providers, resulting in mistrust, stigma, and low-quality care.

The patients reject open communication with their caregivers that leads to misunderstanding and inadequate diagnosis as well as the poor subsequent treatment. Accordingly, patient outcomes are likely to deteriorate due to a lack of properly assigned treatment options. Thus, discrimination against transgender persons negatively affects their psychological and physical conditions.