W H E N PAT I E N T CA R E B E CO M E S
» A CA L L I N G « BY WILLIAM POWERS, DO
Turns out, the phrase, “If you build it, they will come,” really is true.
I William Powers, DO
One in ten
transgender people will die of suicide. An outstanding 41% of transgender people attempt suicide by age 30.
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T R I A D | S U M M E R 2018
never expected that over a third of my patients would be transgender. It never occurred to me, starting with just one transgender patient in my early years of residency, that this care would become my calling. At the time, I was doing my best to educate myself to provide this patient competent care in rural Carleton, Michigan. I simply wanted to do my best to serve a community that otherwise had no other options. Over the following years, my reputation for quality care for these patients resulted in over a thousand transgender patients joining my practice. Like many things, it started out small and grew into something bigger, something greater.
“transgender broken arm syndrome.” The term refers to a scenario when a transgender patient has an ailment, say a broken arm, and the provider assumes that it is somehow related to being transgender. In some cases, it’s assumed it was caused by hormone therapy or because of some surgical history, even in extreme situations like if the patient was in a car accident. It’s important to take the time to recognize that transgender share more similarities to us than differences. We must stop ourselves from making rash decisions based on one piece of their medical identity of gender dysphoria. A good physician sees them as an ongoing story, of which being transgender is only one part.
Many doctors shrink from caring for transgender patients simply because they lack the additional education to perform the hormonal transitioning, or how to properly refer for medical management. The truth is, being transgender is only a single aspect of who they are as patients and people. A patient may be red-headed, diabetic, an international traveler, or a veteran. All of our patients bring a unique story that produces the person that arrives on your exam table. I do my best as their provider to keep this in mind, to avoid the misconception,
While I would love to convince all my colleagues to provide this care, I hope to specifically reach the ones who might say, “I don’t feel comfortable,” or “it goes against my beliefs/views/ etc.” To those who may fit that category, I would like to share my perspective. Imagine for a moment, as I do, that when we die, we live again as another person somewhere in human history. In this scenario, we live out the lives of the 100 billion humans who have ever existed, or will ever exist. Therefore, when you do something kind for someone, you also do