The Deadnaming Doctors Office.

Why are you like this?

I’ve been going to Advanced Psychiatry for a year or two now and the psychiatric nurse practitioner and the therapist I’ve been seeing are absolutely wonderful.

I don’t talk a lot about being transgender because outside of my primary care physician office Wellspace being a transphobic, I’m doing just fine. I’m sure of my identity. My school uses my chosen name, even Wellspace uses my chosen name. Sometimes my step mom misgenders me but that’s okay. She’s got a lot on her plate being in chronic pain so the little things are just not on her mind. Anyhow, I’ve been treated well by my clinicians and they’re very very good.

Unfortunately the clerical workers at the office are not so good. After the online visits with my clinicians the clerical staff calls and schedules my next appointment, and they deadname me every single time without fail.

So I respond with, “I go by Alex. _ is my dead name.”

Multiple times I have asked them to set a note or something in their computer system so that they can be reminded next time they call. Multiple times it hasn’t gotten better.

All I can think is that their system doesn’t have preferred name settings for some bizarre reason in the year 2021, or the clerical workers are just not paying attention. Maybe they’re in a minimum wage minimum effort situation, in which case they need to be paid better.

I’m very mildly irritated.

I’m not sure what to do, I like the clinicians a lot. A part of me is tempted to go full Karen, another part of me says it’s not worth it.

Maybe it’s time I legally changed my name. I have been waiting because I don’t pass yet because my primary care health care provider group which has an endocrinologist refuses to provide me with testosterone. I’m going to fire them once they get my thyroid meds taken care of.