I reported this person to the state board now, so I feel comfortable leaving a post about this up.
Last year, I went to an LGBTQIA clinic in Seattle called Reclaiming Our Bodies. I can’t name the person I saw there here, so I’ll call them the NP, as they are a nurse practitioner. They both run and are the sole practitioner at this clinic. This person is in the community, and I’m not trying to send hate their way, I only want to offer a warning after what I experienced there.
The NP repeatedly pressured me to go off testosterone early without reason, even before telling me where my current levels were at, which they later told me were normal. I’m in my 30s, am post-total hysto, and no other doctor (including the one I’m seeing now) has ever told me I needed to stop T early. They asked me leading questions implying I was abusing testosterone and Ritalin. There was no reason for them to ask me questions along these lines, I don’t have a history of drug/medication abuse, etc. I am a Black/Cherokee (Nation) trans guy and Two-Spirit, and I think that may have been why.
When I didn’t agree to go off T, the NP let out an exasperated sigh and became increasingly irate to the point of shouting at me that it was useless for me to take testosterone. They were chuckling and smiling while doing this, and mocking my voice (and body language when I became visibly upset). The clinic had advertised itself as offering trauma informed care, and I had prior been attacked and had also had past negative experiences trying to receive healthcare. I had mentioned in the first appointment that I tended to lock up and go deer in the headlight when I was shouted at. Each time the NP did something like this, they’d look right at my face, studying it, like they were trying to gauge my reaction.
Their behavior was very bizarre, they were at one point offering to increase my dosage unasked, then interrogating my reasons for even being on T, then twisting those reasons to make it sound like I was unsuited for T entirely. After I had already been on it for several years and had undergone multiple trans surgeries. It felt like they were steering the entire conversation towards telling me I shouldn’t be on testosterone.
After this, I remembered I had seen them some years back at Capitol Hill Medical and had received similar treatment. They were pressuring me to halve my dosage of T, and were talking about how they could start tapering me off T permanently in just a few years. At that time, I had only been on T a handful of years and was recently post-total hysto. They were so weirdly exuberant about it, smiling openly and crowing “and it looks like we’ll have to cut it again!” as they walked out of the room. They hadn’t even told me where my levels were at. I had to call the clinic to get any info, and I was told my levels were fine and my dosage didn’t need adjusting. I was weirded out, but just didn’t go back to see them (although I later saw Dr. Rongitsch here who was great, so please don’t think I’m painting this clinic with the same brush as ROB).
When I told ROB that the NP’s behavior made me uncomfortable, “hormonal imbalance” was added to my chart on Elation without any blood test or test results. I asked for an explanation. There were also some issues with the billing and my insurance refused to pay, so I requested a breakdown of the charges. Neither were answered.
When I went down to the building that houses the clinic, I was allowed by the building manager to sit in an empty conference room on the first floor (clinic is on the second). I left a (civil) voicemail asking the clinic to talk about what was going on. The clinic called the cops on me without warning. The building manager confirmed afterwards that the NP had called them.
The police told me they were technically there as CARE, asked me why I was there, etc. I explained, and they told the NP (who was on the phone, on speaker) I wasn’t angry or a threat. I heard the NP say “he has another side!” and they began repeating the lie that I had a hormonal imbalance. I think the NP was trying to incite the cops against me so they’d get rid of me. The cops repeatedly warned the NP they were breaking HIPAA, but also seemed to be believing them. The cops bunched up around the door blocking it and took on an aggro posture like they were expecting something. I realized I was having a panic attack and begged to leave and exited quickly.
At first, I had some reservations about talking about this and kept removing my post, for various reasons. When I left it up for about 2 weeks in February, I received a lengthy letter from the clinic (in response to me requesting a copy of my medical records in January) that tried to paint me as dangerous and harassing for requesting the records and a breakdown of the bill (they refused to send me any for months, and wound up refunding me instead when pressed).
The letter definitely came across like a threat of legal escalation, they claimed they had evidence and “I could go to the authorities.” They claimed they “feared for their life.” I had only posted on Reddit and a Google review, and IIRC the NP had a whole pic of their face on their website at the time. I think I was being manipulated but I was scared enough that I just took down everything. I was concerned enough that I contacted both the Ingersoll Gender Center and the Gender Justice League, but never received any response. In late March, after everything had been removed, I received a revised version of the letter that said they “didn’t wish to escalate.”
I’ve reported them to the state board, which I should’ve done from the beginning. I’ve told other POC in the community I know in Seattle about what happened. And I’m posting about this now, and not taking it down for once. I’m thankful for those who encouraged me to have a backbone about this and all the advice given.
TBH I was wallowing at a point and needed to stop dragging my feet about actually addressing it.
And these faggots actually think that someday they'll be able to properly menstruate from these things.
