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“Discrimination Makes It Difficult to Go to the Hospital”: Why LGBTQ+ People Need “Multidisciplinary Treatment”
2026-09-18 14:29
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Although the LGBTQ+ population is growing in Korea, access to healthcare remains low. According to the global public-opinion research company Ipsos, the percentage of people in Korea who identified themselves as LGBTQ+ increased from 4% in 2021 to 7% in 2023. It is estimated that more than three million people in the country are LGBTQ+. However, because of social attitudes and experiences of discrimination, they delay or avoid visiting hospitals. Many require care from multiple specialties, including hormone therapy, endocrinology, obstetrics and gynecology, and mental-health assessment, but very few institutions in Korea manage these services within a single dedicated system. Under these circumstances, calls are growing for a multidisciplinary care system for LGBTQ+ patients.
Discrimination and the Absence of a Care System Make Timely Treatment Difficult
The difficulties LGBTQ+ patients experience when visiting general hospitals extend beyond the simple absence of specialized hospitals. Because of the combination of a closed social atmosphere and healthcare professionals' limited experience, patients are still addressed in ways inconsistent with their gender identity or asked questions unrelated to their care. Gender identity refers to an individual's internal understanding and sense of their own gender. Some patients report being asked about sexual orientation during consultations or repeatedly called by the legal name shown on their identification. These experiences reinforce the feeling that their identity and treatment experience are not respected, making them hesitant to visit the hospital at all.
In 2017, a Korea University research team surveyed 244 Korean adults who needed medical support for gender incongruence and reported that those who had experienced discrimination were approximately twice as likely as the general population to avoid or delay necessary care. Professor Kuylhee Kim of the Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital LGBTQ+ Center said, “Some patients who are consulting about or preparing for gender-affirming healthcare tell us that they have experienced refusal of care or unnecessary questions. When these experiences accumulate, a vicious cycle develops in which people do not seek hospital care even when they are ill.” Gender-affirming healthcare refers to all medical and psychosocial services that support physical and mental health in accordance with the gender a person understands themselves to be.
Research also suggests that accumulated experiences of discrimination can lead to actual deterioration in physical health. A 2020 study by a University of California research team found that patients with more experiences of discrimination were more likely to avoid gynecologic and internal-medicine care, delaying the detection of uterine and ovarian conditions and ultimately increasing emergency-department visits.
Gaps in Care Create Additional Problems
Discontinuity during treatment is another major problem. Gender-affirming healthcare may involve multiple stages, including mental-health assessment, hormone-regulation treatment, reproductive and urologic surgery, voice care, and psychological rehabilitation. In Korea, however, these processes are fragmented across different hospitals. When a patient changes medical institutions, essential information such as how far treatment has progressed and whether adverse effects occurred may not be fully transferred, repeatedly forcing the patient to explain the entire course of care again. Professor Kim said, “It is difficult to maintain the entire treatment process reliably through the efforts of individual doctors alone. This is why a multidisciplinary system in which several departments develop the plan together is necessary.”
The need for multidisciplinary care can also be seen in actual patient cases. Professor Kim said, “There was an older transgender patient who had undergone gender-affirming surgery overseas and then left problems untreated for decades because there was nowhere in Korea to receive postoperative care. At the time of the patient's visit, skin-tissue changes, urinary dysfunction, and hormonal imbalance were present simultaneously, creating a condition that could not be resolved by one department alone.” A direction for treatment could be established only after Psychiatry, Urology, and Endocrinology developed a plan together. Professor Kim said, “This case shows how a gap in care can worsen health and how multidisciplinary care can restore it.”
Similar findings have been reported overseas. A research team at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago analyzed its experience operating a multidisciplinary clinic for adolescents with diverse gender identities and reported that coordinated involvement from mental-health professionals, endocrinology, voice therapy, and surgery was necessary to reduce adverse effects and efficiently organize the treatment sequence. This is why multidisciplinary care has become standard in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other regions.
Both Systems and the Care Environment Must Change
Improving the treatment system alone will not eliminate barriers to care. Medical administration, insurance, and testing procedures still operate solely according to legal sex, creating healthcare gaps both before and after legal gender recognition. Before legal gender recognition, failure to respect a person's gender identity creates barriers to access, including repeated confirmation at multiple stages. After legal gender recognition, screening and treatment for the organs a person still has can fall outside the system. Professor Kim said, “Existing binary legal rules and medical-administration systems have no method of including minorities. In the long term, the administrative structure itself must be reorganized.”
Changes in social awareness are also essential. Even if the number of LGBTQ+-affirming medical institutions increases, patients will continue to hesitate over whether to seek care unless social stigma is resolved. Under these circumstances, the Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital LGBTQ+ Center, Korea's first multidisciplinary healthcare institution for LGBTQ+ people, has introduced practical environmental improvements including consultation cards that reduce the burden of registration, functions for recording preferred names and pronouns in the electronic medical record, and gender-neutral restrooms. Professor Kim said, “Even small changes are important for creating a consistent care experience. We will improve education, facilities, and systems together to expand environments in which LGBTQ+ patients can receive care without discomfort.”
Source: Health Chosun, reporter Yejin Yoo
https://health.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2025/11/20/2025112001285
Discrimination and the Absence of a Care System Make Timely Treatment Difficult
The difficulties LGBTQ+ patients experience when visiting general hospitals extend beyond the simple absence of specialized hospitals. Because of the combination of a closed social atmosphere and healthcare professionals' limited experience, patients are still addressed in ways inconsistent with their gender identity or asked questions unrelated to their care. Gender identity refers to an individual's internal understanding and sense of their own gender. Some patients report being asked about sexual orientation during consultations or repeatedly called by the legal name shown on their identification. These experiences reinforce the feeling that their identity and treatment experience are not respected, making them hesitant to visit the hospital at all.
In 2017, a Korea University research team surveyed 244 Korean adults who needed medical support for gender incongruence and reported that those who had experienced discrimination were approximately twice as likely as the general population to avoid or delay necessary care. Professor Kuylhee Kim of the Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital LGBTQ+ Center said, “Some patients who are consulting about or preparing for gender-affirming healthcare tell us that they have experienced refusal of care or unnecessary questions. When these experiences accumulate, a vicious cycle develops in which people do not seek hospital care even when they are ill.” Gender-affirming healthcare refers to all medical and psychosocial services that support physical and mental health in accordance with the gender a person understands themselves to be.
Research also suggests that accumulated experiences of discrimination can lead to actual deterioration in physical health. A 2020 study by a University of California research team found that patients with more experiences of discrimination were more likely to avoid gynecologic and internal-medicine care, delaying the detection of uterine and ovarian conditions and ultimately increasing emergency-department visits.
Gaps in Care Create Additional Problems
Discontinuity during treatment is another major problem. Gender-affirming healthcare may involve multiple stages, including mental-health assessment, hormone-regulation treatment, reproductive and urologic surgery, voice care, and psychological rehabilitation. In Korea, however, these processes are fragmented across different hospitals. When a patient changes medical institutions, essential information such as how far treatment has progressed and whether adverse effects occurred may not be fully transferred, repeatedly forcing the patient to explain the entire course of care again. Professor Kim said, “It is difficult to maintain the entire treatment process reliably through the efforts of individual doctors alone. This is why a multidisciplinary system in which several departments develop the plan together is necessary.”
The need for multidisciplinary care can also be seen in actual patient cases. Professor Kim said, “There was an older transgender patient who had undergone gender-affirming surgery overseas and then left problems untreated for decades because there was nowhere in Korea to receive postoperative care. At the time of the patient's visit, skin-tissue changes, urinary dysfunction, and hormonal imbalance were present simultaneously, creating a condition that could not be resolved by one department alone.” A direction for treatment could be established only after Psychiatry, Urology, and Endocrinology developed a plan together. Professor Kim said, “This case shows how a gap in care can worsen health and how multidisciplinary care can restore it.”
Similar findings have been reported overseas. A research team at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago analyzed its experience operating a multidisciplinary clinic for adolescents with diverse gender identities and reported that coordinated involvement from mental-health professionals, endocrinology, voice therapy, and surgery was necessary to reduce adverse effects and efficiently organize the treatment sequence. This is why multidisciplinary care has become standard in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other regions.
Both Systems and the Care Environment Must Change
Improving the treatment system alone will not eliminate barriers to care. Medical administration, insurance, and testing procedures still operate solely according to legal sex, creating healthcare gaps both before and after legal gender recognition. Before legal gender recognition, failure to respect a person's gender identity creates barriers to access, including repeated confirmation at multiple stages. After legal gender recognition, screening and treatment for the organs a person still has can fall outside the system. Professor Kim said, “Existing binary legal rules and medical-administration systems have no method of including minorities. In the long term, the administrative structure itself must be reorganized.”
Changes in social awareness are also essential. Even if the number of LGBTQ+-affirming medical institutions increases, patients will continue to hesitate over whether to seek care unless social stigma is resolved. Under these circumstances, the Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital LGBTQ+ Center, Korea's first multidisciplinary healthcare institution for LGBTQ+ people, has introduced practical environmental improvements including consultation cards that reduce the burden of registration, functions for recording preferred names and pronouns in the electronic medical record, and gender-neutral restrooms. Professor Kim said, “Even small changes are important for creating a consistent care experience. We will improve education, facilities, and systems together to expand environments in which LGBTQ+ patients can receive care without discomfort.”
Source: Health Chosun, reporter Yejin Yoo
https://health.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2025/11/20/2025112001285
