Abstract
Transgender patients continue to receive suboptimal health care due to transphobia and inadequate trans-competency of health care professionals. Lack of adequate training and exposure may lead to improper bedside manners. This factor is among many other systemic and latent ones that inculcate a feeling of iatrophobia in transgender patients. This damages the patient-doctor relationship severely and ultimately results in suboptimal health care outcomes. This paper discusses the causes of iatrophobia in transgender patients and the steps that health care professionals can take to address this phenomenon. The authors believe that health care professionals that pay heed to this paper will greatly improve the competency of their care toward their transgender patients.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Safer JD, Coleman E, Feldman J et al (2016) Barriers to healthcare for transgender individuals. Curr Opin Endocrinol Diabetes Obes 23(2):168–171
UCSF Gender Affirming Health Program, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco (2016) Guidelines for the Primary and Gender-Affirming Care of Transgender and Gender Nonbinary People. In: Deutsch MB (ed) 2nd edition. Available at transcare.ucsf.edu/guidelines
Hembree WC, Cohen-Kettenis PT, Gooren L et al (2017) Endocrine Treatment of Gender-Dysphoric/Gender-Incongruent Persons: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 102(11):3869–3903
Connelly PJ, Freel EM, Perry C et al (2019) Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy, Vascular Health and Cardiovascular Disease in Transgender Adults. Hypertension 74(6):1266–1274
American Psychiatric Association (2013) DSM-5 Task Force. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association: Washington, DC, USA
Meggetto O, Peirson L, Yakubu M et al (2019) Breast cancer risk and breast screening for trans people: an integration of 3 systematic reviews. Can Med Assoc Open Access J 7(3):E598-609
Alzahrani T, Nguyen T, Ryan A et al (2019) Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Myocardial Infarction in the Transgender Population. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes 12(4)
Martins RS, Saleh R, Kamal H et al (2020) The need for transgender healthcare medical education in a developing country. Adv Med Educ Pract 11:405–413
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
MUM wrote initial draft and reviewed it. MSR designed the graphical abstract. MUH and AR helped draft the initial manuscript. AA reviewed the paper. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mukhtar, M.U., Raza, M.S., Rahim, A. et al. Addressing iatrophobia in transgender patients. Ir J Med Sci 193, 887–888 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-023-03503-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-023-03503-6