This doctor travels to Windsor to bring more gender diverse care 'closer to home'
CBC
About once a week, Dr. Ian Johnston makes the trip from Chatham-Kent, Ont., to Windsor, Ont., to meet with and care for young people who are questioning their gender identity.
He does this to bring more timely supports closer to the people who need it.
"The number of teens and children looking for care far outstrips the capacity for it," said Johnston, who has been running the Youth Gender Diversity Clinic in Windsor since March.
"Waiting lists at big clinics have gotten completely unmanageable. I think they're 18 months in London, they're two years in Toronto, which may not seem huge but if you're a struggling 13 or 14 year old, if your children need to wait two years to even see someone ... it's a pretty distressing situation."
Since Johnston's clinic began, he said he's had about 15 patients.
The clinic offers people 18 years of age or younger hormone blockers, affirming hormone therapy and continued treatment through the Windsor-Essex Community Health Centre. Johnston said he aims to get parental consent where possible, but can treat people without it as Ontario doesn't have an age of consent.
Johnston said he's the only doctor in Chatham-Kent providing this care and believes he's the only one offering it to teens younger than 16 years old in Windsor.
Johnston and Trans Wellness Ontario told CBC News that the gender diverse community doesn't always feel well served in the Windsor-Essex region due to a lack of resources or gender diverse expertise from physicians.
Nona Abdallah, who is a trans woman and gender fluid, told CBC News that wait times, but also judgment or a lack of knowledge from physicians, are some of the barriers the community faces.
"One time [a doctor] commented on my breasts, they're like 'oh wow your breasts are getting really big, I haven't seen that,' and it just ticks something in your brain like this is weird," said Abdallah, who is a peer mentor and group facilitator at Trans Wellness Ontario.
Abdallah said experiences like this made them feel uncomfortable and were part of the reason why they decided to find care elsewhere.
They said they've also had doctors admit to not knowing much about hormone therapy or how to provide follow-up treatment.
Juliana Simon, a registered social worker at Trans Wellness Ontario, said people also find it challenging to get a hormone replacement therapy referral from a family doctor, as some don't have one.
She added that sometimes family doctors think only an endocrinologist can prescribe hormones.
