Transgender research: Making the invisible visible

(Photo by Myriams- Fotos/Pixabay) - When Greta Bauer submitted her first grant proposal to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) 15 years ago, she had to convince reviewers that the research team was going to survey more trans people than should exist in Ontario. Research data at the time estimated there should be about 550 trans individuals in the entire province. This, despite one health clinic in Toronto caring for as many patients as the data suggested. "When I first started this work, there was so much invisibility," said Bauer, professor and CIHR Sex and Gender Science Chair. "People didn't understand the importance of doing research or implementing inclusive policies because they imagined that trans people were so vanishingly rare; that trans people were not going to come into their clinical practice, or work with them, or even be their doctor." Bauer is part of a team of researchers at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry focused on the health and well-being of trans and non-binary people. Working in collaboration with diverse communities across the country, they are striving to empower educators, inform policy and improve access to care. Nearly half of all transgender and non-binary Canadians who responded to a 2019 national survey revealed having had one or more unmet health-care needs in the past year, and 12 per cent avoided the emergency room, despite needing care.