Countless studies have indicated that having such information on hand will undoubtedly improve the care experience for patients, in particular transgender patients.
I'd love to see the citations for this, as it does not mesh with my experience.
Do you have medical insurance? If so, do you use it regularly?
Yes, depends on what you define as regularly (once every few months?) - I live in Canada though.
Have you experienced any kind of stigma or other uncomfortable situations? If so, from whom and what kind?
Yep, trying to get blood work done when my ID says <female name> F. My insurance card says <old name> M (because it takes freaky months to get a new one), and my blood work form says <old name> F (because it had been 6 months since my last appointment)...it is a world of fun.
Also, for some reason when I told my clinic I had changed my legal name they simply put my new name in brackets...we had some very harsh words.
Do you have to seek out alternative ways to care for yourself as opposed to seeing the doctor?
Nope. Well...see below.
Do you think having information in your health record related to your gender identity would improve your care? Why or why not?
Not sure what this means. My health records should denote me as female, as the majority of any health issues are likely to be the result of my hormonal makeup and not my chromosomal makeup. There are a couple of instances where individual notes should be made regarding treatment for gender dysphoria, and obviously listed medications.
Any suggestions (aside from collecting gender identity data) on how to improve the patient experience?
Training, most doctors are useless when it comes to queer issues. I've had some try to prescribe me medication which would have some terrible side effects when combined with my hormonal medication (which they knew I was on!) - seriously, something which could increase clotting potential in a patient already on increased estrace...it's unbelievable, I called them out on it and then they retracted the prescription....
The more I interact with health professionals, the more I try to seek out private experts with actual published reviewed papers who give lectures, as the majority of clinic docs / GPs seem pretty damn incompetent.