Almost 30 percent of transgender patients have been harassed in a medical setting, according to a report by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Half of the patients polled said they had to educate their doctors about transgender health care.
“When you’re going through medical school,” said Lewis, “you get taught about all sorts of rare and very not-common diseases.” But, he added, “Very rarely are people given more than an hour lecture, if an hour, on transgender health.”
Lewis continued his outreach to transgender patients during the remainder of his medical fellowship. Now, five years later and with Lewis’s help, Washington University and St. Louis Children’s Hospital opened the Transgender Center of Excellence, the first health clinic for transgender youth in St. Louis.