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A new study shows trans, nonbinary physicians face transphobia throughout the medical field

A doctor's stethoscope.
Creative commons
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unsplash.com/Hush Naidoo Jade
A doctor's stethoscope.

A new study shows transgender and nonbinary physicians face overt biases associated with their identity and gender presentation.

The study, led by Dr. Laura Westafer, an ER doctor at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, finds trans and nonbinary doctors experience transphobia regularly. Many trans physicians noted that they are misgendered or get called the wrong name by colleagues or supervising attendants.

Westafer, who is also a researcher in the Department of Healthcare Delivery and Population Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, said this leads to many trans doctors leaving the field, but that some hospitals have toolkits for physicians who are going to transition.

"Here's who you send emails to. Here's who corrects your name in the electronic health record. We're going to send emails to all of these things, ways that people can be alerted to these changes so they don't have to go through those traumas," she said.

Westafer recalled an experience she faced while doing her clinical rotations in medical school in the rural South. Westafer, who identifies as a lesbian, had not come out yet.

"I remember sitting there in an emergency department and they have the little curtain, you know, there are no doors... And a patient had come in with nausea and vomiting and was sick," she said. "We go into our assessment and I'm working on the patient's chart and I hear [other physicians] joking and not calling the patient by the right name and the right gender and mocking the patient's presentation that was non-conforming to the gender binary."

Westafer said both she and the patient could hear the comments through the curtain.

"I could not stand up to them in that moment because of the power dynamics I had. I was worried about being outed. Nobody knew my my sexual orientation. I only had a year there. I didn't want to ruin it...ruin my grades" she said. " I felt that those things were in jeopardy. So this study is sort of me trying to fix the guilt that I've carried for the past ten years from that."

The study surveyed 24 physicians across the country who identify as transgender, nonbinary, or both. Westafer says these findings signal a need for systemic change within the field.

Copyright 2022 New England Public Media. To see more, visit New England Public Media.

Nirvani Williams
Nirvani Williams covers socioeconomic disparities for New England Public Media, joining the news team in June 2021 through Report for America. Prior to this, Williams was the associate editor of Seema, an online publication dedicated to spreading more stories about women in the Indian diaspora, and has written a variety of articles, including a story about a Bangladeshi American cybersecurity expert and her tips for protecting phone data while protesting. Williams interned at WABC-TV’s “Eyewitness News,” WSHU public radio, and La Voce di New York, a news site in Italian and English. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Stony Brook University, where she was the executive editor of the student-run culture magazine, The Stony Brook Press.

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The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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