Transgender patients look to physicians and other health professionals for respect and understanding about their gender identities, but discrimination in clinical settings continues to affect both transgender patients’ access to care and the quality of care they receive. This month’s AMA Journal of Ethics considers the nature and scope of medicine’s obligations to respond to these trends and highlights how “gender-affirming care” can improve critical health outcomes.
Take a moment to consider this scenario: Should a psychiatrist agree to develop expertise in hormone therapy if longtime patients ask the psychiatrist to manage this aspect of their gender transition?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Only if there are no available local endocrinologists
Give your answer and find responses to this poll in the November issue of the AMA Journal of Ethics, which explores strategies for understanding and caring for transgender patients.
Articles include:
- “Lessons from a transgender patient for health care professionals.” It is not uncommon for transgender patients to avoid sharing information about their identities and medical histories with health professionals, due to past negative experiences within health care settings. Find out how showing sensitivity to the topic and expressing care about health-record documentation can increase a transgender patient’s trust.
- “Understanding transgender and medically assisted gender transition: feminism as a critical resource.” Feminism has fought the trivialization of women’s experiences, championed women’s security and insisted on respect for women’s choices. Explore how feminist insights into the role of clinicians as gatekeepers to gender transition can help resist tendencies to pathologize transgender.
- “What’s in a guideline? Developing collaborative and sound research designs that substantiate best practice recommendations for transgender health care.” Limitations in the body of evidence and the exclusion of gender identity data from most public health surveillance activities present particular challenges in the development of evidence-based guidelines for transgender medicine. Investigate how focusing research on key health outcomes can lead to new guidelines.
- “Transgender rights as human rights.” Arguments to support transgender rights often rely on “born that way” arguments, which are vulnerable to attack on several grounds, including emerging scientific data. Understand how human-rights based language can create stronger support for transgender rights.
In the journal’s November podcast, Aron Janssen, MD, a clinical assistant professor at New York University School of Medicine and the director of the Gender and Sexuality Service at NYU Langone Medical Center’s Child Study Center, discusses how health professionals can better serve their transgender patients.
Submit an article
The journal’s editorial focus is on commentaries and articles that offer practical advice and insights for medical students and physicians. Submit your work for publication.
Learn what the Code says
The November issue of the journal also features opinions from the revised AMA Code of Medical Ethics related to discrimination and disparities in health care. The Code of Medical Ethics recently underwent a comprehensive modernization, resulting in greater relevance, clarity and consistency.
