Transgender health care horror stories

♪ (music) ♪

My name is Leo Soell, and my
pronouns are they, them, their.

SOFIA: My name is Sofia Stanford,
pronouns she/her.

I'm Gray, and my preferred
pronouns are he/him.

Robin Knauerhase, and I use
feminine pronouns, so she, her. hers.

My name is Luke Jude and
I prefer he/him pronouns.

My name is Chloe Flora my
preferred pronouns are she or they.

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LEO: 99% of time when I go to the
doctor I'm anxious and nervous.

Robin: Even though insurance and driver's
license and everything says female

you really don't know what to expect.

SOFIA: Yeah I don't think I know any trans
person that went to the medical system

and had a nice time with it.
Not in this country.

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CHLOE: I haven't gone to the
dentist in four or five years

because it's just such an
uncomfortable experience.

LEO: I know people who if they sprained
their ankle will just wrap it up

and put some ice on it rather than go
into the ER and having an x-ray done

because it's just not worth the stress.

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LUKE: I've had a history of
urinary tract infections.

It was pretty commonplace 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.

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 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 know.
We tried to tell you."

SOFIA: I initially knew I identified and
felt female around five years old.

When this was called
out 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,
corrective assignment

and orientation to gender roles,

other things to help masculinize

and/or reprogram the viewpoint
of the world to the child.

If I had to be this way I'm
gonna walk in front of a car

and I'm gonna reset it and try over.

That's what I thought
when I was six.

LEO: I had a bunch of different
symptoms tied to sleep,

tied to appetite, weight gain, mood.

It 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."

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 cis-gendered man I would
have been treated completely differently.

ROBIN: 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.

It's like do you dress full-time as a man?
(laughter)

Yes, yes I'm a woman. I am a
woman of transgender experience,

and of course, it's just like any
other women in your office.

GRAY: The biggest horror story I had
was going to the pharmacy

to pick up my first
testosterone prescription.

I was nerve-racked already because
it's like such an emotional thing

to 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, 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.

Some people hear that and they might
follow me to my car and bash my head in.

CHLOE: During one physical
therapy appointment I had,

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 mental health.

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