I'm lucky in that I work in one of the local hospitals' ERs, and everybody there knows me by my chosen name and pronouns. Also, my family doctor has been very supportive.
I don't understand why this is so difficult for healthcare providers. The majority of the doctors I go to are part of a large healthcare system in my area. I am supposedly enrolled in their "Gender Health Program", and I know they have my preferred name and pronouns in my chart. The actual doctors seem to be pretty good about using my preferred name and pronouns. (Although one of my doctors started acting really weird when I came out to her.) But with support staff, it seems to be about 50/50 whether they use my deadname or preferred name, and which gender they refer to me as. (Not so much a matter of pronouns, since they usually aren't talking about me in the third person; it's more a question of whether they address me as "Mr." and "Sir", or as "Ms." and "Ma'am".) And for some reason the lab techs seem to be especially bad; worse than the other support staff. They really should only use my legal name for billing, insurance, and prescriptions. In the context of an office visit, they should always be using my preferred name. I don't understand what's difficult about that. I'm in the process of changing my legal name and gender, so hopefully that should help. But I don't understand why it's so hard for them to use a different "preferred name" and "legal name" in the appropriate context, when they have both in my chart.
I'm lucky in that I work in one of the local hospitals' ERs, and everybody there knows me by my chosen name and pronouns. Also, my family doctor has been very supportive.
Thank you so very much for sharing 🙏
You are so welcome 🤗
I don't understand why this is so difficult for healthcare providers.
The majority of the doctors I go to are part of a large healthcare system in my area. I am supposedly enrolled in their "Gender Health Program", and I know they have my preferred name and pronouns in my chart.
The actual doctors seem to be pretty good about using my preferred name and pronouns. (Although one of my doctors started acting really weird when I came out to her.) But with support staff, it seems to be about 50/50 whether they use my deadname or preferred name, and which gender they refer to me as. (Not so much a matter of pronouns, since they usually aren't talking about me in the third person; it's more a question of whether they address me as "Mr." and "Sir", or as "Ms." and "Ma'am".) And for some reason the lab techs seem to be especially bad; worse than the other support staff.
They really should only use my legal name for billing, insurance, and prescriptions. In the context of an office visit, they should always be using my preferred name. I don't understand what's difficult about that.
I'm in the process of changing my legal name and gender, so hopefully that should help. But I don't understand why it's so hard for them to use a different "preferred name" and "legal name" in the appropriate context, when they have both in my chart.