The transgender patient poses some unique healthcare issues. Here are some tips

The transgender patient poses some unique healthcare issues. Here are some tips

The transgender patient poses some unique healthcare issues. Here are some tips (Jellin, 2020) when seeing a transgender individual in your future NP role:
Keep the actual birth gender in mind for the diagnoses. Assigned sex at birth is protected by HIPAA, but remember contraception may be necessary by some transgender males taking medications with fetal risk (e.g., ACE Inhibitors, ARBs, statins) and prostatitis may occur in transgender females.
Document the sex, gender identity, and sexual preference in your computer system (e.g., electronic health records [EHR]).
Document all medication indications to avoid confusion (e.g., spironolactone use in a transgender female may be used to inhibit testosterone production).
Use gender identity rather than sex at birth for calculating renal function (e.g., creatinine clearance [Clcr]) for patients who have been on transgender hormone therapy for a minimum of six months. Hormones can affect lean body weight and serum creatinine.
Check for health conditions. LGBTQ patients may be more likely to have, and/or less likely to be screened for some disorders vs the non-LGBTQ patients. Conditions may include:
anxiety, depression and suicide
alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use
cardiovascular disease (remember that diabetes is a cardiovascular disorder)
cancers (e.g., breast cancer in transgender males)
HIV
These points have been useful to me in our free clinic, and I hope they are useful to you. What is your thoughts and suggestions?