Paris (AFP)

Informal directories of doctors sensitized, word of mouth, recommendations of associations ... LGBTI people, sometimes faced with discriminating doctors, create their own networks to find caring health professionals.

"It's important for us to know that there are doctors who respect us in our identity and do not necessarily see us as a beast", testifies to AFP Fleur Dupuy, young trans and lesbian woman aged 22 who was able to find an endocrinologist thanks to the trans database (BDDTrans).

"From the point of view of a trans person, a doctor + safe + (sure, ed) it is a doctor who will respect my gender, my identity.I will inform me of different treatments but will not impose me "says the student in sociology who began her medical transition a year ago.

Gender transition, ambiguity of the genitals in intersex people, LDCs for a lesbian couple ... LGBTI people (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex) are more vulnerable to the medical profession.

More than half of LGBTI people have already felt discriminated against by a health professional, according to a study published in January 2018 that focused on oncology, the health of minors and bariatrics (branch of medicine that is interested in to obesity).

"When we go to see his doctor we must be able to tell him everything.We can not be well cared for if we hide things from his doctor," said Stéphane Cola, coordinator of the site doctors-gay-friendly that lists 450 doctors "sensitized to issues of gender and sexual orientation".

Himself a victim of a homophobic doctor who revealed his homosexuality to his parents several years ago, he says that "there is not a day going by without one being convinced that this network is legitimate and indispensable ". For him, the main risk is that LGBTI people stop taking care of themselves.

"The bulk of the demand is the general practitioner and second the shrink," says Stéphane Cola.

- "White List" -

Being in front of a "benevolent" and "sensitized" doctor can also change a life. Barbara Rickenmann and her wife chose to do a PMA abroad thanks to a gynecologist who told them that he would agree to follow them and advised them to have a clinic in Barcelona.

Reassured by this gynecologist, she created a "file" on Gynandco to recommend it to other lesbians. This site lists health professionals "feminist", but also "lesbian-friendly", "gay-friendly" or "transfriendly" (sensitized to themes related to lesbians, gays and trans, ed), powered by the comments of patients.

"Opportunity to address the issue of transition without taboos, no questions about my marital status or the desired or unwanted genital operations, performed or not." Very attentive and understanding about my wish to keep my uterus and my ovaries ", testifies for example a patient under the" file "of a gynecologist.

LGBTI advocacy organizations also play a key role in connecting with health practitioners.

Stop Homophobie is a partner of gay-friendly doctors, SOS Homophobie regularly refers to the Psygay association, while the West Trans association, the LGBTI Center in Rennes and the Family Planning of Ille-et-Villaine are part of the health network trans that connects health professionals and trans people.

"We are in the process of drawing up a whitelist" which at the moment is "relatively lean", indicates for its part the Intersex and Allied Collective, which reproaches a misunderstanding and a pathologization of intersex, the fact of owning at birth, both male and female sexual characteristics.

For many LGBTI people, "word-of-mouth" is the safest way to find a doctor. "This is the first network + safe +," says Fleur, who was able to find a psychologist through recommendations from friends.

© 2019 AFP