Fadi Adel, M.D. Clinician-Investigator Fellow, Mayo Clinic  
Jennifer Koehler Research Technologist, Mayo Clinic  
Patrick Decker-Tonnesen Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Advisor, Mayo Clinic

Uncertainty over which pronouns to use with gender-diverse patients can spark anxiety for medical professionals and new acquaintances alike. But that anxiety is no match for the trauma felt by transgender, intersex, and other gender-diverse patients who deal with being misgendered every day. Host Lee Hawkins is joined by a panel of Mayo Clinic experts to unpack the medical importance of pronouns and why best practices in equity, inclusion, and diversity cannot be honored without using them properly.

“To be honest, if I didn't have chronic health conditions where I do have to go to the doctor's office very often, I would probably avoid it, because no one likes to be misgendered. No one likes to feel that anxiety. I really don't like feeling that anxiety, especially since now that I'm farther along in doing things that do affect my gender, like wearing clothing that I feel affirms my gender, like surgery, my haircut in ways that affirm my gender. And then still being misgendered in a doctor's office really negates all that validation that I do have, even in my queer community, even within myself.”

--Jennifer Koehler

“My medical chart has my pronouns.  I have only been correctly gendered twice, where my pronouns are actually used in the medical setting. And this includes my doctor’s notes because as a patient, I do read my doctor's notes, and it usually feels like I'm not generally being seen.”

--Jennifer Koehler

“And when I was growing up, I was very much pushed towards being my assigned gender at birth. And so, for me, it was just feeling this deep incongruence with that and also with my body and how I was being perceived by other people.”

--Jennifer Koehler