Health Care Experiences of Transgender Adults: An Integrated Mixed Research Literature Review

Abstract

This integrated literature review, framed by the gender affirmation framework, sought to contextualize the experiences of transgender adults interfacing with health care after the release of Healthy People 2020. The constructs of the gender affirmation framework represented 4 a priori themes used to organize the findings. The 23 articles synthesized (quantitative, n = 13; qualitative, n = 7; case studies, n = 2; and mixed methods, n = 1) revealed numerous obstacles accessing health care, discrimination from health care professionals and clinicians, restricted health insurance benefits for medically necessary care, and barriers to medically necessary care, such as cross-sex hormones, as well as primary and preventative health care.

Figure 1.

Modified gender affirmation framework

Figure 2:

PRISMA flow diagram