Health Disparities in the Transgender Population

Introduction

Transgender is a term that is used when refering to a variety of groups, behaviors and individuals. This entire phenomenon covered by this term share one common characteristic of a variation from the culturally convectional gender roles. Transgender is the sate of a person’s Identity as a man, woman or both. Transgendered people may be heterosexual, homosexuals, bisexual, pansexual or asexual. The health concerns of transgendered people vary differently depending on the transgendered behavior. The most common health disparities include mental health, HIV, Aids, drug, and substance abuse, among other concerns. The people of this nature face unfairness in the society by stigmatization, discrimination, poor social support and health service barriers. This paper critically analyses the differences and inequalities that the transgendered people face in their health and social life. The psychological effect of this on their relations has also been given a key concern in the quest to expose the health disparities of people of this nature.

Epidemiological Results

The transgender health Facts have epidemiological results showing that the discrimination of the transgendered people in access to health care services ranges from 11 to 53%. Also, the rates of transgendered people who lack insurance protection is made up by 21 to 64% in 9 cities of the United States and 13-27% in 2 states.  Also, studies conducted in the United States show that, among the transgender women, 5-68% are positive. It also shows that 9.6-10.5% of the transgendered women in two states of the United States are HIV positive. These epidemiological results show a higher rate of spread of HIV aids among colored transgendered people. In terms of mental health, depression rates among the transgendered individuals range from 43%-60%. The attempts of suicide, on the other hand, range between 16%-32%. Depression rates and attempts to commit suicide among the transgendered population is the easiest way to measure the mental health status of these individuals.  This shows that this group of people in the society should have their health concerns looked into, to enhance their participation in making the society lively and economically stable (Baker 2012).

Discussion

The gay, lesbians, bisexuals and other significant members of the transgendered population experience a lot of health disparities. They experience violence, discrimination and prejudice that is usually based on their sexual orientation. In most instances, this affects the extent to which these people enjoy services such as healthcare. This may be seriously detrimental in their personal lives. Considering that discrimination has a psychological effect on the transgendered people, they find it extremely hard to maintain the relationships between the people surrounding them. This is usually an effect of the confidence being tampered with by the unfair treatments they get, which make them feel inferior (Harcourt 2006). These aspects of discrimination are extremely harmful since they hinder the transgendered individuals from achieving health protection. The find health care unnecessary since they have low self esteem.

In the recent past, the transgendered people have not been enjoying insurance coverage. This form of inequality has cost the health care among people with this lifestyle to experience a terrific deal of unfairness. They have been affected by diseases, and they sometimes do not successfully recover from minor diseases. When these people are not accorded the fundamental human right to health care, because of their sexual orientation, this cause a substantial division in the society between transgendered people in the society and other society members. To end this type of conflict and to prevent it from occurring in the future, it is unquestionably relevant for the society to ensure that equality prevails in the society and improve the image of the transgendered individuals in the society.

Another disparity suffered by people with a transgendered sexual orientation during their attempts to maintain their health care, is the refusal from treatment by providers. The health care providers are sometimes exceedingly crude, and they deny treatment to people who are transgendered. The best example that can be used to this form of equality is the fact that Christian mission hospitals may be reluctant to treating self proclaimed gays. This comes with the fact that Christianity views this behavior as uncouth and evil. Therefore, it is necessary for the society to protect the health of its members before thinking about their sexual orientation or religious affiliation. Urgent and routine health care get denied to people with his lifestyle. This occurs due to discrimination that comes with their sexuality and the appearance of sexual organs in some instances. Bearing in mind that people with normal sexualities are not denied routine healthcare and emergency practices, it is necessary for the society to consider creating some fairness to people with transgendered sexual orientation.  Because of the sexuality of these people, they are likely to suffer a massive effect of HIV and other sexually transmitted disease. Therefore, there is an ultimate need for these individuals to receive equality in health care. This is because their susceptibility to HIV AIDS increases their chances of relying on the routine help more than any other individual (Bockting & Avery 2005). Analyses from the National healthcare Disparities Report indicated that 50% of transgendered people usually postpone their medication with a reason of poverty. The inequality in the government on the basis of property ownership or wealth in any nation is the fast factor leading to massive death and extinction of transgendered individuals.

The heath disparities of transgendered people also get characterized by the provision of poor quality services. The people get provided with extremely poor services, only because their sexual orientation is not the same as the traditions of the society. It is unequal to deny people healthcare because of their sexual orientation. In fact, the people who get these low services in their health lives are the people who need close health attention and quality services. The health disparities that the transgendered individuals face are linked to denial of human rights, discrimination and stigmatization (Krehely 2009). The failure to achieve equality during the provision of healthcare for the transgendered individuals results to suicide, low self esteem, substance abuse and high rates of psychiatric disorders. Among these individuals, the experiences of violence and always being a marked person are a common phenomenon in their lives.

The issue of health disparity affects the people with transgendered lifestyles immensely. These people mainly include gays, lesbians, heterosexuals, bisexual among others. These people have a sexual orientation that is different to societal traditions. Therefore, their cases are not readily accepted by society members. Traditionally, the society is used to sexual relationships between male and females. However, in the recent past there have been some changes in the society, leading to an increased number of the transgendered population. These individuals become the target of unfairness during health care provision since they are not fully accepted into the society (Makadon 2008).  Their sexual orientation is as viewed   an irresponsible sexual behavior in the society. However, something should be done to protect the issue of transgendered individuals in the society. This s because, some people are transgendered because of factors beyond their control. For example, if a person is born with two sexual organs, discriminating against the person may be a dreadful thing since they usually suffer long term psychological effects. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid discriminating the transgendered individuals when it comes to accessing routine and quality health care.

Health disparities in the Transgendered population are a serious issue in the society today. This is because of the rampant cases in which the modern society is experiencing the development of multiple sexualities in the society. The people with transgendered lifestyles sometimes face discrimination in the society when seeking health care. This is a serious issue since it leads to a drawback of the society. THE health lives of the individuals affected is messed by practitioners in the field of medicine and health. This results to poor economic performance of these individuals in the society. The poor motivations of these individuals, due to the disparities they experience, come with lowering of their performance. To address the equity of health issues among the transgendered population it is necessary to tackle some of its inevitable causes. The discrimination in the health sector against the transgendered people is based on the notion that the gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered people are an ignorant population with an immoral sexuality (Harcourt 2006). To solve the problem, it may be necessary to change this perception. Provision of some reasonable amount of heath care is a fundamental human right under the Universal declaration of Human rights. Therefore, governments should ensure that they provide healthcare to their people irrespective of their sexual orientation or ideas regarding their sexuality. The citizens should not be discriminated against or get stigmatized because of their sexuality.

The goal of any sober healthcare system to provide high quality and affordable healthcare to all citizens. The access to healthcare should not be dictated by the money people make, their sexual orientation, their skin color, immigration status, gender or disabilities. The Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and the transgendered population are most likely to get un insured. This disparity may be particularly harmful to the health lives of these individuals.  Also, these individuals are more likely to contact HIV AIDS more than the general population. Therefore, they should be at least be treated like the other individuals forming the general population if it is not possible to treat them as a special lot.

In the recent past, the field of medicine and health has conducted extensive research on the diseases such as cancer, Asthma and diabetes. The scientists spend sleepless nights trying to find the possible solutions to most of the disease causing so many deaths among the normal people. The disparity that ensues with this fact is that they spend a little time researching on medical and surgical procedures for transgendered people. This is an indicator that transgendered people are not given a place in the society today. It is necessary for the medical practitioners to consider making inventions in the field of medicine so that they clearly show the attempts to end inequality between the transgendered population and the normal people.

To solve the problem of Health disparity in the transgender population, it may be necessary that individuals should consider the equalization of the transgendered people and the general population. This comes with sensitizing the transgendered population to raise their self esteem. The equal treatment of the transgendered population and the general population should then be highly campaigned for in the field of health. Health practitioners should provide quality service to the transgendered population since that they require the services more than the general population. Another way solving this societal health concern it the exercise of emphasizing equality in the society. This would result to equal treatment of both the transgender population and the other group of people, by the health care system (Krehely 2009).

Conclusion

From the foregoing, it is quite vivid and clear that the transgendered population experiences a terrific deal of disparities in relation with their access to medical care. Therefore, it is essential that the society should consider creating policies that are friendly, and that seek to achieve access to quality medical care for the transgender individuals. These people form a valuable composition of the society, and they should not be treated unfairly by the government and the society when it comes to access to affordable and quality health care. Therefore, the governments across the world should consider using health system that is friendly to all the society members regardless of their race, sexual orientation, skin color or income. The medical system to be used should allow for equality of all the people. The transgendered people should be offered with adequate knowledge about the fast spread of sexually transmitted diseases to prevent the occurrence of fast disease spread only among the transgender people.