An estimated half percent of the U.S. population identifies as transgender, which means that an individual’s actual gender identity differs from the gender identity associated with their birth-assigned sex.
Due to gender discrimination, many transgender people often face significant barriers when it comes to accessing health care.
“Stigma, as well as institutional and interpersonal gender discrimination can impact housing, employment, criminal justice system engagement, insurance and social support access,” says Halley Crissman, M.D., MPH, an obstetrician gynecologist at Michigan Medicine’s Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital. “Through training in gender non-discrimination and gender-affirming care, as well as recognition and rectification of cisgender assumptions in the medical system, health care providers have the power to foster significant improvements in the health and well-being of the transgender community. Our team is working hard to acknowledge these injustices and make meaningful positive changes.”
By: Jina Sawani