Affirming Care Matters: Addressing the Health and Wellness Needs of Transgender and Non-Binary People

Happy Pride!

In this final blog in our LGBTQ+ health & wellness series, our CultureBeat team builds on the issues explored in our previous blogs, including the broader healthcare barriers and mental health challenges facing the LGBTQ+ community. These issues represent a serious crisis across the larger community, but they are even more acute for transgender & non-binary folks, who often face deeper barriers to care, greater discrimination, and more severe mental health risks.

Transgender and non-binary people make up only about 1% of the total US population, yet they face even greater healthcare and mental health barriers than the larger LGBTQ+ community. Their access to care is even more limited, with affordability being a major challenge. Transgender adults are even more likely than both the broader LGBTQ+ community and non-LGBTQ+ people to postpone healthcare because they cannot afford it. This is heavily linked to employment, with transgender people facing more workplace discrimination, contributing to higher rates of unemployment, being uninsured or underinsured, and having less disposable income.

Even when affordability isn’t an issue, transgender people are more likely to avoid needed medical care because they fear discrimination. Unfortunately, this fear is all too real as nearly half report having experienced a negative interaction with a healthcare provider because they are transgender.

The mental health crisis also intensifies among transgender and non-binary people, who are more likely to experience anxiety and suicidal thoughts. As with the broader LGBTQ+ community, these challenges are driven by societal stigma, family rejection and discrimination overall. And, furthermore, the political rhetoric focused on transgender people and gender identity can further intensify these harms to this group.

There are also important nuances for transgender & non-binary healthcare.

When they do seek healthcare, transgender people often don’t receive the same quality of care as their cisgender counterparts (people whose gender identity/presentation aligns with their sex assigned at birth). Part of this is due the discrimination they experience from healthcare professionals who either don’t believe they are transgender, ignore their gender identity, or are biased against transgender & non-binary people. This may include misgendering them, creating a hostile care environment, refusing to treat them, or other abuses.

Their quality of care can also be affected by a phenomenon known as “trans broken arm syndrome.” This occurs when healthcare providers, either consciously or not, assume a transgender person’s medical issue is related to their gender identity. For example, a transgender person with a broken arm may have their injury incorrectly attributed to being transgender instead of receiving care for the injury itself. While the example may sound extreme, this bias can lead to real health issues being overlooked, misdiagnosed, or left untreated.

One key aspect to the quality of healthcare transgender & non-binary folks receive is gender-affirming care. Gender-affirming care can refer to medical, surgical, mental health, and non-medical services that are aimed at affirming and supporting a person’s gender identity. For some, this means changing their name, pronouns, hairstyle, and clothing to more accurately reflect their gender identity. Some also use hormone blockers or take hormones to help alter their physical appearance or even have gender-affirming surgeries.

Gender-affirming care is highly important for the mental wellness of some transgender and non-binary people. Limiting their access can have a deadly impact. In states where gender-affirming care has been legally restricted, suicide attempts among transgender youth increased drastically. Unfortunately, half of states have these restrictions and many more are attempting to pass them.

It’s also important to remember that gender-affirming care is only being restricted from transgender & non-binary people, even though cisgender people regularly access similar forms of care. This includes breast reduction/chest contouring for women who feel theirs are too big or men who have gynecomastia, breast augmentation surgery for women who want theirs to be larger or had a mastectomy, hormone therapy for men to maintain libido or energy for women to manage menopause, laser hair removal for women or hair transplants for men with male pattern baldness, facial contouring (e.g., Botox, lip fillers, jaw surgery, rhinoplasty, etc.), body sculpting (e.g., liposuction, Brazilian Butt Lifts, etc.), going to the gym, clothing style, etc. are all examples of gender-affirming care.

These forms of care are widely available to cisgender people, while transgender and non-binary people face greater barriers to accessing them.

The transgender & non-binary community face more intense & unique barriers to healthcare and mental wellness. For brands to resonate with and earn LGBTQ+ dollars, they need to understand these nuances and find creative ways to help address the very real issues they face.

While the transgender & non-binary community is a smaller subgroup of the LGBTQ+ community, they can’t be ignored. Unless brands support the entire community, their efforts will be seen as rainbow-washing or ingenuine, and they will fail to earn the LGBTQ+ community’s trust, loyalty, and dollars.

C+R’s CultureBeat team recognizes that one of the most meaningful ways brands can show up consistently is by supporting the health and well-being of the LGBTQ+ community, an area where thoughtful action can make a real difference. So, this year, we are spotlighting health & wellness for the LGBTQ+ community: the real issues they face, the moments of joy, and how your brand can make an impact that extends far beyond Pride Month. Stay tuned for more on the LGBTQ+ community and health & wellness throughout June and October.

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Featured, Healthcare, LGBTQ+, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research