In the medical field, not everyone is treated the same, and a lot of discrimination takes place.  Transgender and gender non-conforming (GNC) people especially experience a lot of discrimination.  Transphobia is a big problem, and when mixed with racism, getting proper access to care can be incredibly difficult for transgender and GNC people of color.  Transphobia in healthcare can often manifest itself in the form of gender insensitivity.  Transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) patients are often misgendered or are referred to by the wrong pronouns.  TGNC people also often have less access to medical services or downright refusal of treatment because of their gender identity.  Many providers show visible discomfort when treating TGNC people.  Transgender and gender non-conforming people also have a lot more barriers to care, like difficulties with insurance coverage.  (Experiences of health care discrimination among transgender and gender nonconforming people of color: A latent class analysis).  Medical professionals need proper training and education in order to be well equipped to provide the best care for TGNC folks.  Click this link to read more about discrimination against transgender persons in the medical field. 

In addition to having a history of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people, the medical field also heavily performs gender.  Gender is performed through interactions between multiple medical professionals and between medical professionals and their patients.  For instance, Female and male doctors communicate with their male and female patients in very different ways.  Female doctors are more likely to be engaged with the patient.  They employ active listening skills, both verbal and nonverbal.  They nod along, use phrases of interest and empathy, and generally do things that show that they are a caring individual who is paying attention.  Male doctors, however, are more likely to use fancy medical jargon and focus solely on the medical conditions at hand.  They are to the point and do not attempt to people-please through the methods employed by many female doctors.  In this way, doctors perform gender when they interact with their patients.  “Gender may be accomplished during medical encounters and through the narratives produced within these interactions” (The social construction of gender in medical interactions: A case for the perpetuation of stereotypes?).

Furthermore, gender becomes the main focus of many medical procedures and events when it does not have to be.  One of the best examples of this is the childbirth process.  There is such an emphasis on finding out the gender of the baby, which gives importance to the child’s gender before it is even born.  To learn more about gender identity development in children, click here.  The diagnosing of many conditions will also vary greatly depending on the patient’s gender.  Other assumptions made in healthcare also place emphasis on gender.  There is often a distinction between the mother as the housewife and the father as the breadwinner.  Especially during the childbirth process, these assumptions reinforce gender norms.  These are only some of the ways in which gender is performed and accomplished in the medical field.

On a separate note, sexuality is an important factor in health and wellbeing.  While some medical professionals handle the topic well, others are unsure how to address sexuality and provide resources about it and related topics.  Sexuality has also been found to be a tricky topic to navigate well when discussing it in the context of disease and disability.  Most of this discussion touches solely on how a patient’s specific disease or disability may affect sexual function.  There is little to no discussion of sexuality outside of talking about its relation to the patient’s disease or disability.  The study of 114 journals reported on knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of health care professionals about addressing sexuality in the context of chronic disease and disability showed that only 14.2% of the health care professionals in the study routinely asked questions or provided information about sexuality.  This is mainly due to a lack of confidence of these professionals around the topic of sexuality.  Many of them have not been trained in this area and do not feel confident enough bringing it up.  This means that discussion about sexuality on a level deeper than just how it affects disease and disorder rarely takes place. (Addressing Sexuality Among People Living With Chronic Disease and Disability: A Systematic Mixed Methods Review of Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Health Care Professionals).