“Clara, that’s me!” Name, access to health care and social suffering among transgender people

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative study was to understand the relationships between access to health services and experiences of social suffering among trans people. We conducted semi-structured interviews with five participants and participant observation. The data were analyzed using thematic coding, giving rise to two categories: “Name denial” and “Access to health care and institutionalized transphobia in Brazilian National Health System”. The participants’ narratives allowed the researchers to situate these relationships within the sociogenesis of social suffering experiences. Name denial implies the negation of the humanity of trans people and pathologization of their identity, and compromises access to health care, making self-medication a possibility of agency. We conclude that institutionalized transphobia in the public health care system reproduces the precariousness of the citizenship of trans people, highlighting how government actions aimed at mitigating social suffering can sometimes intensify it.