- http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2012spring/article7.html
- http://longreads.com/search/Tracie White/?l=0
- http://byliner.com/tracie-white/stories/transition-point
- http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/76383136/transition-point
List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Spring, 2012
Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Most physicians don’t exactly know what treatment for the 700,000 transgender patients living in the U.S. entails. For an untrained professional, it’s a challenge to provide care to a patient with a penis who wants a vagina, or to a patient who has been tortured emotionally by being told she’s a boy when she knows she’s a girl. General practitioners — the majority of doctors who treat patients in the United States — are equally unprepared to care for those transgender patients after they have begun to take hormones and undergone genital-reconstruction surgery. The lack of medical education on the topic, a near-total absence of research on transgender health issues and the resulting paucity of evidence-based treatment guidelines leave many at a loss.
Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Medical journal articles involving research into lack of adequate health care for the transgender population; journal articles on stereotyping and prejudicial treatment of transgender patients; books including “As Nature Made Him” by John Colapinto; “True Selves” by Mildred Brown, therapist; general interested magazine articles in Esquire and others on transgender people;
Explain types of human sources used.
Surgeons with experience in transgender medicine; general internists discussing lack of adequate education on how to care for their transgender patients; counsellors with experience providing medical and psychological advice to these pateints; transgender support group; transgender patients; transgender activists; deans of medical schools; medical students; LGBT leadership.
Results:
The story was chosen as a Longreads pick which increased its visibility beyond the leaders in the health care world who regularly read Stanford Medicine magazine.
Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No
Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Significant research into transgender issues is important to understand the needs of this much maligned group and to be able to ask meaningful questions when conducting the interviews. Prejudice is also often hidden. Informed journalist can weed it out.