Background

Transgender people face prejudice and discrimination world-wide. Little is known of their experiences in sexual health promoting settings.

Aim

With a focus on sexual health and rights, this study describes how transgender people experience meetings with health care professionals.

Method

Within a descriptive design, 20 persons aged 18-74 and identifying as transgender and non-binary were interviewed. The results were analysed with constructivist Grounded Theory.

Results

Disrespect among health care professionals is the core category connected to the experiences in the result; transgender people experience estrangement, expectations and eviction in different sexual health-promoting settings.

Conclusion

Transgender knowledge needs to be increased in general, in both specialized transgender health care and many other health care settings, in order to prevent transgender peoples’ experiences of estrangement. Moreover, an increased knowledge of, and respect for, sexual health and rights is needed to prevent transgender peoples’ exposure to gender binary, cis- and heteronormative expectations. In addition, access to sexual health care is essential following gender confirmatory care as well in order to avoid transgender peoples’ experiences of eviction from the health care system.