Addressing gaps in physician knowledge regarding transgender health and healthcare through medical education

摘要

BackgroundTransgender people (those people whose sex at birth does not “match” their felt gender identity) are a priority group for healthcare as they experience high rates of discrimination and related illnesses. Despite this, there is a trend of poor healthcare access for trans people due, in large part, to the denial of care on the part of physicians. A small body of literature is beginning to suggest that this denial of care may be due to a lack of physician knowledge as well as, in some cases, to transphobia. There is a dearth of research in Canada, however, exploring whether and/or how knowledge gaps create barriers to quality care, and whether medical education can attend to these gaps while and through addressing gender normativity.