RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Transgender People’s Experiences Sharing Information With Clinicians: A Focus Group–Based Qualitative Study
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 408
OP 415
DO 10.1370/afm.3010
VO 21
IS 5
A1 Alpert, Ash B.
A1 Mehringer, Jamie E.
A1 Orta, Sunshine J.
A1 Hernandez, Tresne
A1 Redwood, Emile F.
A1 Rivers, Lexis
A1 Manzano, Charlie
A1 Ruddick, Roman
A1 Adams, Spencer
A1 Sevelius, Jae
A1 Belanger, Emma
A1 Operario, Don
A1 Griggs, Jennifer J.
YR 2023
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/21/5/408.abstract
AB PURPOSE Investigating transgender people’s experiences sharing health information in clinical encounters may yield insights for family medicine clinicians.METHODS This was a qualitative study using a community-based participatory research approach and interpretive description methodology. Seven qualitative focus groups were conducted with 30 transgender adults living in North America. We used purposive sampling to ensure diversity. The focus groups were transcribed verbatim, and 2 investigators independently reviewed and coded each transcript, then they mutually reviewed the transcripts, reconciled their coding, and summarized the codes into themes. Themes were reviewed with community members, participants, and uninvolved clinically oriented investigators for member checking and peer debriefing.RESULTS Four themes were noted: (1) transgender people often perceive clinicians’ questions as voyeuristic, stigmatizing, or self-protective; (2) patients describe being pathologized, denied or given substandard care, or harmed when clinicians learned they are transgender; (3) transgender people frequently choose between risking stigma when sharing information and risking ineffective clinical problem solving if clinicians do not have all the information about their medical histories; (4) improving the safety of transgender people is difficult in the context of contemporary medical systems.CONCLUSIONS Transgender people often must choose between stigma and potentially suboptimal care. Improvements in medical culture, policies, procedures, and data collection tools are necessary to improve the quality and safety of clinical care for transgender people. Institutional and systems changes may be required to safely and effectively implement sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) data collection in clinical settings.