How a new tool with Maine connections could revolutionize transgender healthcare

Did you know that 19% of transgender people are refused healthcare?

Or that 50% of transgender people have to educate their doctors on their own healthcare?

Or that 25% of transgender people will delay seeking healthcare due to discrimination?*

Well, thanks to a startup resource being developed by a new crowdsourced nonprofit called MyTransHealth, the difficult and intimidating barriers to healthcare that transgender people face will hopefully be erased.

REUTERS/Morris Mac Matzen

REUTERS/Morris Mac Matzen

The idea is being launched by four trans-identified business partners from New York City, New Hampshire, and Boston, and the goal is to connect trans people with doctors and providers who actually understand health care issues specific to the trans community.

“She asked me how to write a prescription, what it was, how often I took it, and things that you expect your doctor to know,” said MyTransHealth co-founder Kade Clark of a previous doctor’s visit in an interview with the Daily Dot.

“And after about six months, I realized she had written me the wrong prescription and I had been taking it. It wasn’t until I saw some side effects that I realized maybe something was wrong.”

Image from mytranshealth.com

Image from mytranshealth.com

Also from the Daily Dot:

“Trans people often have to jump significant hurdles in accessing healthcare, according to the Transgender Law Center.

Insurance companies sometimes deny coverage, healthcare staff often lacks the appropriate knowledge and training for providing trans healthcare, and trans individuals can face discrimination at the hands of medical and mental health professionals.”

For the MyTransHealth YouTube page, Clark’s fellow co-founder, Robyn Kanner is featured in the video below:

Coincidentally, Robyn grew up in Maine and lived in Portland. In an e-mail, she said most of the experiences she talked about in that video happened in Maine.

“We built four different categories into MyTransHealth: medical, legal, mental health, and crisis,” Clark continued in the Daily Dot piece.

“Once you delve into those categories you can still filter down through different needs, like wheelchair accessibility, insurance coverage, or language. In Miami, for example, there’s a huge need for Spanish-speaking providers that are also skilled to serve transgender people.

We want the site to remain free for the community and for it to be self-sustaining. We want to be here to stay. We have no intention of becoming millionaires ourselves.”

*Statistics come from the MyTransHealth Twitter page.
Chris Shorr

About Chris Shorr

Chris is a sixth generation Portlander who loves all things Maine. He has worked with mentally ill and marginalized adults at a Portland non-profit, on a lobster boat in Casco Bay, at several high-end Portland restaurants, and at a local meat packing plant. He also ran for Portland City Council in 2013, wrote a weekly column in the now defunct Portland Daily Sun, and currently writes a weekly column in The Portland Phoenix.