Transgender health care horror stories transcript

[Music] My name is Leo Cell and my pronouns are they, them, their. My name is Sophia Stanford. Pronouns she, her. I'm Gray and my preferred pronouns are he, him. Robin Canawaza and I use feminine pronouns, so she, her, hers. My name is Luke Jude and I prefer he, him pronouns. My name is Khloe Flora. Uh, my preferred pronouns are she or they. [Music] 99% of the time when I go to the doctor, I'm anxious and nervous. Even though insurance and driver's license and everything says female, you really don't know what to expect.

Yeah. I don't think I know any trans person that went through the medical system and had a nice time with it. Not in this country. [Music] I haven't gone to the dentist in four or five years because it's just such an uncomfortable experience. I know people who if they sprain their ankle will just wrap it up and put some ice on it rather than going to the ER and having an X-ray done um because it's just not worth the [Music] stress.

I've had a history of urinary tract infections. It was pretty um common place for me. And I went to the urgent care and the physician on staff that I was dealing with kept telling me over and over how atypical it was for a man to be having a series of urinary tract infections. I tried to interrupt him and say, "I understand. You know, I've been through a gender transition, so my anatomy is probably not what you expect it to be." And he kept stopping me.

He wouldn't let me complete and assuring me that he did understand. He did understand and he said, "I think I would like to take a look." So I I pulled down my pants and it wasn't at all what he expected and he was immediately apologetic. He said, "Oh, you don't have Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize." I said, "I I know. We tried to tell you." I initially knew I identified and felt female around five years old when this was caught out by a my by my family member who was the director of mental health for the state that I lived in. essentially required force correction like invasive hypnotherapy, uh, corrective assignment and orientation to gender roles, other things to help masculineize and/or reprogram the viewpoint of the world to the to the child.

If I had to be this way, I'm going to walk in front of a car and I'm going to reset it and try over. That's what I thought when I was six. I had a bunch of different symptoms tied to sleep, tied to appetite, weight gain, mood that had sort of increased in severity over a year. And one of the things that my doctor told me to do was check myself into a hospital. Next time I had my round of symptoms. So I checked into a hospital and even just within the check-in process, I was misgendered.

I finally spoke to the doctor and he came in and was speaking to me as if I was a 13-year-old girl and all of my symptoms were surrounding hormones. And when I started talking about hormones, this doctor in the hospital actually looked at me and said, "Oh, what do hormones do?" I didn't think hormones did anything. And he actually checked me out of the hospital. He said, "You know, I think that you're just bleeding a lot right now." Um, fast forward three days later from this hospital visit and I was diagnosed with invasive hormonal breast cancer that tested 99% positive for estrogen.

And I think that if I had had the same list of symptoms but was a cisgendered man, I would have been treated completely differently. So, in general, I've been blessed with a good primary care physician and an endocrinology doctor, but I was seeing a specialist for a different medical problem. And my records and everything all said female. I have everything changed. And the guy looked at it. He went through all of those steps and then said, "So, do you dress full-time as a woman?" And I was stunned.

Um, it's like, "Do you dress full-time as a man?" Yes. Yes, I'm a woman. I am a woman of transgender experience. And of course, it's just like any other woman in your office. The biggest horror story that I had was going to the pharmacy to pick up my first testosterone prescription. I was nerve-wracked already cuz it's like such an emotional thing to like finally get that golden ticket. Ends up being like a dollar. So, it's just the syringes.

There's no medicine. Four people later and about 20 minutes, they finally look it up in the computer and they're like, "Oh, yeah. Oops." Throughout this entire process, I have to say my legal name, which isn't the name that I go by, um, out loud to the entire store. And I'm basically outing myself to everyone around me. And that's not wanting to hide. That's just about trying to stay safe. Like some people hear that and they might follow me to my car and bash my head in.

During one physical therapy appointment, I had um, one of the therapists misgendered me to an entire room of people, both other physical therapists and other clients. He never looked me in the eye again. He never talked about it. He never apologized. It was just this weight. And especially me as a trans woman, me as a trans woman, I get misgendered all the time. Like it's something I deal with on a near daily basis. So to have that happen in a medical setting, something where I can opt out of, even though it might not be the healthiest thing, I will.

I'd rather protect my own sense of um mental health.