Transgender woman shares her story of struggle within Cairns health services

A transgender woman claims a doctor refused to use her name when she was treated at a Cairns private practice as she speaks to the state of transgender care in Australia.

Renee Lees and Wendy Ramsey rallying outside Cairns Electoral Commission, protesting against LGBTQI hate in the political landscape. Picture: Georgia Clelland.

A transgender woman claims a doctor refused to use her name when she was treated at a Cairns private practice as she speaks to the state of transgender care in Australia.

While for many, the ability to see a GP and access critical treatment is simple, for transgender patients hurdles including transphobia, long waitlists and Medicare snubs stand in the way of basic care.

“Of the regional areas I know, and I’ve lived in almost every state in the country, healthcare ordinarily is tough so if you navigate that as a member of the LGBT community that’s really rough and it gets even tougher when you talk about the subset of transgender people,” LGBT advocate and proud transgender woman Wendy Ramsey said.

Ms Ramsey said transphobia and access to basic health needs were still issues for transgender people living in Cairns.

She referred to an instance where her former GP refused to use her name, consistently calling her by her ‘dead’ name – a term for the name a transgender person used before transitioning.

“I’m dressed and presenting as Wendy and the doctor would come out with (Wendy) stamped across my file and he would still call out my dead name,” she said.

“I died a thousand deaths every time he did that.

“It didn’t matter how many times I asked that doctor please do not do that, it fell on deaf ears,” she said.

Wendy Ramsey speaks out to the state of transgender care in Australia. Picture: File.

A 2023 report by the Trans Justice Project and Victorian Pride Lobby found one in two transgender Australians had experienced some form of hate in the previous 12 months.

Although only embarking on her medical transition three years ago, Ms Ramsey had always known her true identity.

“I began questioning at age eight,” she said.

“And very clearly by age 10, it was literally my 10th birthday, I knew without any doubts in my soul I was born in the wrong body as we say.”

Ms Ramsey started medically transitioning in mid-2021, well into adulthood, and socially transitioning in 2020.

“When I look back on it, my transition is something that extended an extraordinary amount of time, partly because of my situation and partly because of what I wanted to achieve in the world – education, business – it was just easier to achieve those things not being the girl I was, so I continued to pretend until it got the better of me,” she said.

In searching for a place to best navigate her transition, she landed on Cairns for a somewhat surprising reason.

“Firstly I moved because of the lifestyle but also for Cairns Sexual Health Clinic and more specifically the gender clinic here,” Ms Ramsey said.

Cairns Sexual Health Clinic in Cairns North contains the largest dedicated gender clinic in regional Queensland and is run by Dr Darren Russell, one of the top authorities on transgender care in the country.

Dr Darren Russell - Director Cairns Sexual Health Clinic Picture: Brian Cassey

“With increasing numbers of transgender people coming forward for support and treatment during the past decade or so, specialist transgender health services are necessary to ensure that transgender people and their families have access to support and medical treatment,” Dr Russell said.

“Transgender people need access to specialist management, including mental health care and hormonal treatment,” he added

While her experience at Cairns Sexual Health Clinic has been “supportive from day one”, Ms Ramsey said many GPs would dismiss her and other transgender patients, citing lack of specialised training.

“If you cannot get a doctor to take you onto their books, then you aren’t able to access basic healthcare,” she said.

“A lot of people don’t cope, don’t make it and our healthcare system supports not making it by virtue of not providing the basic things we need.”

A 2021 University of Melbourne study found 43 per cent of transgender participants had attempted suicide and 63 per cent had self-harmed.

She added Medicare subsidies were limited for transgender people, with the only subsidised medicines being those used by cis gender men and women and access to surgeries is even more reduced.

“Transgender health care rides off the back of cis gender care in this country.

“We certainly don’t have access to the kinds of surgeries that are often needed just to sustain life.”

Dr Katie Williamson, a Cairns GP with special interest in transgender care, said while transphobia certainly existed across the board, there were definitely practitioners wanting to do better.

“It’s a little bit scary, if you’re not skilled in that area and you feel like you might be creating permanent changes to someone’s body you want to make sure you know what you’re doing,” Dr Williamson said.

Dr Williamson, who teaches transgender care and treatment as part of the JCU rural medicine program, said she is hopeful the next generation of doctors will bring about systemic change.

“Anything in medicine, the younger generation coming through heralds change,” she said.

“Having it a part of their curriculum will make it a more acceptable part of mainstream general practice.

“That being said, I think Cairns is doing pretty well for a regional centre.”

Dr Williamson said the decision to move into transgender care has given her immense satisfaction.

“It’s such a rewarding space to be working in,” Dr Williamson said.

“Every single one of my transgender patients has cried with me at one stage just from the joy of now being able to affirm their identity.

“You just don’t get that a lot in medicine.”

Originally published as Transgender woman shares her story of struggle within Cairns health services