Transgender And Health Care

Abstract

We have so many feelings and emotions worth embracing but have we actually learned to embrace them publicly? Everyone is busy being appropriate for some rigid guidelines laid on ‘how to be socially accepted? That kind of conditional thinking adds on to how everyone has been restricting on embracing their true emotions. They like being someone else instead of actually showing who they really are.

Gender Identity is so complex that most of the people find it completely confusing. It is because in our society people only consider two boxes of gender that are male and female, which is not true there is also a third category which Transgender. People like them are out there looking for their real selves, searching for themselves in those missing parts. They withhold this fear of expressing their real selves and doesn’t feel comfortable being vulnerable. But if some of them have found themselves still they are not treated or excepted by society.

So how can we spread awareness? How can we make it more possible to understand and accept transgender into our community? Through my research, I am mainly focusing on Transgender their health care and how they can find real selves. The purpose of this paper Is to provide readers with the opportunity to see that a lot of processes have gone when you discover yourself and finally want to be one of them. It would be a learning experience for everyone but especially – Transgenders, doctors, parents.

Introduction

My research started when I thought what we Indian thinks about transgender as a person? If you ask people in India what they know about trans people, most of them only answer that they have seen them begging near traffic signals and inside trains. Some start complaining about their ‘bad’ behavior.

This is the harsh reality for many transgender people in India. But the fact we often ignore or don’t even realize is that directly or indirectly, we, as a society, are responsible for their condition. Being disowned by their own families and harsh treatment from others in society leads to their so-called ‘bad’ behavior. Lack of access to education and the non-availability of jobs often forces them to do begging.

Which actually leads me to the question why this so and what the difference between the two and why they are treated as a separate section of the society? I started my research on gender identity from where I reached the concept of there is just two gender male and female. When we are born the doctor, itself introduce us with the three magical words that are “its a boy or it’s a girl’’ and from that point, the whole society closes their eyes and actually except the fact that there are only two genders. But this not true, there also a third category which is just not been seen and was not considered as part of the society. As I mentioned above that what are their views on that community. As researching ahead, I realized there is a spectrum of gender identity with maleness on one side and femaleness on the other side - gender identity which includes all the different types of identities in itself. The term transgender is an umbrella term that includes all the different types of identities. So here to get more clarity on what we individual think for ourselves or mostly how we see ourselves and others. So, I started it with small exercise to look at the mirror and describe yourself on your appearance and biological sex, etc. so I describe myself as a female from both appearance and biological sex.

Appearance is something which we hear from our ears and what others think who we are through our appearance whether female, or male and biological sex which consist of hormones, genitalia and chromosomes. So, if I can feel the way I am then transgender would also feel the same who they actually are, they are also humans. People know who they are male or female the same happened with the same connection with the transgender they know who they are. We often go to the doctor, psychiatric to understand our problem. Same as transgender they also go to doctors to explain to them what they are going through. But as I researched that they are not treated properly they are judged for who they are. Will explain this with the small example what if I or you go to a doctor for an appointment? and what if the doctor didn’t treat you with dignity and respect, that they ignored your needs or you even felt judged? you feel bad, isn’t it? and say no to treat you what a bad impression you will get or created for the doctor. The simple way you will do is you won’t go that doctor again. You will go to the next doctor and get your self treated. But what happens to a transgender male goes for their check up from gynecologists? And if that gynecologist refuses him to treat what impact will be created on him, He will finally bury himself and his feeling inside that body. He won't be able to figure out what kind of the symptoms he is going through or facing, which lead him to suffer from anxiety, depression and even worse it will lead him for a suicidal attempt. If he is trying to understand his body isn’t it the doctor responsibility to guide him.

Many doctors say they don’t feel comfortable asking them about there gender identity. Some don’t feel like its relevant at all to their medical care and others just don’t want to say the wrong thing. Some doctor says they don’t know about there body and never been trained on how to care for these individuals. Some they don’t respect them and judged them. That what happening for more than 1. 4 million transgender adults if they are lucky enough to get an appointment. This is the scenario of the doctors. Being doctor and doing there duties is not enough, what hearts the patient the most is being around people and environment that reject them it is literally making them sick. It is a doctor responsibility to treat that person to make others understand all changes he is facing or going through and educate them more on this. But this is not happening because of a lack of practice and knowledge. But this cant is accepted as a norm anymore either. They are also human just like you and me. They also deserve better and trained health care as we do, because of a part of us know that the number of transgender community is also increasing this not because it’s a new thing to do but it’s safer to come out and realize who you really are and we can’t neglect that fact that transgender community is the people who are suffering.

It the high time that people should start speaking up for these people. That why it so important to educate people about transgender. somewhere I feel like lack of knowledge about them. That is why it is so important for our education and our health care to get on board. Make sure that our teachers educated children about transgender. Moreover, doctors also have to educate and train themselves and make sure that health care providers are trained to approach and deals these patients with dignity and respect, because if a doctor treats his patients with dignity and respect his other stuff too. So maybe in someday a transgender approach anyone and say hey “I am a transgender “the only response they will get is – “Hi nice to meet you, how can I help you”.

Identity

In my experience, the first things people do is assume whether I am a girl on boy based on their appearance. We assume what gender someone is based on how they look and if can’t tell we get confused. I say this because I do it too. It's ingrained. But what we do is wrong assuming gender with their appearance is no right. Some people get confused between gender identity[endnoteRef:1], sex and gender expression[endnoteRef:2] which is a very common thing for people who are trying to discover who they are. They get those things mixed up, and just to clarify gender identity is how you fell about your body, sex is what is underneath your clothes, your private parts and gender expression is how you outwardly express your gender. These are the things with built an Identity. [1: Gender identity - is defined as a personal conception of oneself as male or female (or rarely, both or neither). This concept is intimately related to the concept of gender role, which is defined as the outward manifestations of personality that reflect the gender identity. (Shuvo Ghosh, 2015)] [2: Gender expression: It includes physical expressions such as person’s clothing, hairstyle, makeup, and social expressions such as name and pronoun choice. Some examples of gender expression are masculine, feminine, and androgynous. (Anon. , 2016)]

Transgender[endnoteRef:3] are the people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The first step towards understanding a transgender person is considering that biological sex is not the same thing as gender and this is hard for a lot of us to understand because we have grown up in a culture that equates sex with gender in other words when you are born the doctor declares you as male and female based on what is your external visible form . Person body does not always define their internal gender identity. Gender identity is the internal sense of naming one's gender for most people biological sex aligns with the gender assigned at birth this alignment is called being cisgender. [3: Transgender: is an umbrella term that describes people whose gender identity or expression does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. For example, a transgender person may identify as a woman despite having been born with male genitalia. (Bradford, 2018)

Conclusion

It is said that the people don’t have enough knowledge of transgender, due to which they feel like a separate section of the society. Same for the parents they have to understand the need for their child. Same as for the doctors, it a proper process of getting a transition done, but some doctor just signs the documents to get the transition done, which is not accepted. Which brings me to a clear state of lack of education and awareness for them. A proper education system should be introduced so that it is easy for the people or children to understand the changes that they go through. so that the people can understand and get more open toward this community. Doctors should also need to educate themselves and practice more so that they can easily treat them or appoint another expert doctor who has knowledge about them. Everyone knows that the transgender community faces a lot of eye rolls and jokes when it comes to them being taken seriously but if we starting thinking for them now it will definitely lead to a better future for them.

Transgender is an umbrella term that includes people all along the gender spectrum. The gender spectrum is not the same thing as a sexual orientation just like cisgender people transgender people may be romantically and physically attracted to cis or trans men or women or either of them. So we all need to be a part of the solution regardless gender variation it is not something changing or breaking down in our culture it is something that always was and still is part of our existences, we all have the ability to see people clearly who exist all along the gender spectrum in this society.

If we are on earth, we are part of transgender society, we need to accept it. we have the power to help someone by imagining more than two boxes male and female. we have the power to create a safe environment where everyone has the right to choose whichever box, they want to. we have the power to educate others and ourselves. We have the power to bridge those gaps.

Bibliography

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