FOR SOME, IT’S A LIFE AND DEATH THING
And even if a transgender person has a family doctor, they’re far from home free. Some doctors don’t prescribe hormones like testosterone or don’t want to work with a trans person at all, Gaskarth said.
Sebastian Gaskarth is transitioning and doesn’t have a family doctor. For them, and other transgender people, that can affect mental health, well-being and the wait time for sex reassignment surgery. “Because there’s a shortage (of doctors), it’s putting us in an already vulnerable situation even more so,” said Gaskarth, Pride Centre co-ordinator at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. Transgender people often face job loss, family discord, housing discrimination and a long wait (plus expense) for surgery. If they don’t have a family doctor, the road is definitely longer and harder, Gaskarth said. There’s a reason suicide is a major concern in the transgender community. “And I’m white, which is one thing, but when you start talking about transwomen who are people of colour, Indigenous, black, that whole thing with the racism, the stats are worse,” said Gaskarth, who recently helped open a health clinic on campus for transgender, non-binary and questioning students. In order to get surgery, a transgender person requires assessment and letters of approval from health-care providers. Without a family doctor, those letters can be more difficult to get, Gaskarth said. “I have friend that it’s five years (for surgeries) or they get lost in the system. They were supposed to get a referral but they’re waiting a year still to get a letter.” Gaskarth goes to the Halifax Sexual Health Centre, but appointments can be difficult to get due to the demand. Unknown doctors’ clinics can be stressful and humiliating for transgender people. Gaskarth said some refuse to use a person’s preferred name and call out their birth name in the waiting room. “There’s folks like me: I’m non-binary, I don’t consider myself to be a man or a woman, but they’ll keep lumping me into one of the boxes. It’s already a traumatic thing because you’re going there to get help — not just for a cold — for a huge thing, and every time you go, you’ve got to explain your story. Every time.” “It’s so much bigger than the shortage. Even if you find a doctor you’ll have to think about if they’re willing to work with you, will they respect your name … and pronouns. Maybe they’ll continue to call you a woman when you’re a man.” Transgender people face all this plus they don’t feel right in their own bodies, Gaskarth said.