Accessing Gender-Affirming Care in Portland

It can feel really overwhelming to look at a list of unknown names, and the idea of reaching out to them about something so vulnerable (ie, establishing care for HRT!)

So....Below are a bunch of suggestions on how to get started:

The clinics on our resource list were selected thoughtfully, with our patient's unique needs in mind. We are hopeful that they will give you great care. 

Although we cannot promise anything about your care with other places, we do think that these are places that are at minimum the most likely in Oregon, and in Portland, to treat all people with dignity and good healthcare. 

If you have anyone trustworthy in your life who may be willing to sit down with you while you make these calls, or who is willing to call the clinics for you, having emotional support can be helpful when you do this. 

If you are a person that likes to have as much information as possible, it can be helpful to look at provider profiles on clinic websites. Try visiting the websites of some of these clinics, take a look at the doctors and nurse practitioners listed on the websites… see if you feel drawn to any certain one.

Pick your top choice for clinic or provider (for some people, this may feel more like picking ones that appear to be “the least bad,” so to speak.) 

Sometimes, indecisiveness can really delay our decisions, which is totally understandable (launching out to find a new healthcare person can feel somewhat terrifying a task.)

So… If you just can’t decide who to call first, do something like closing your eyes and putting your finger down on the list, or giving each clinic on the list a number and rolling dice...then, call clinic that your dice-roll chose!

Next, call the number of the clinic you were interested in, and ask to make a “new patient appointment.”

Their staff will take it from there, and help you get set up with your first appointment! 

After that call, there’s really not much else to it other than showing up for your first appointment and deciding whether or not you think that provider is a good fit for you. (And, if you decide after meeting the provider that they are not the best person to handle your care—> repeat the process above to find a new one.)

A lot of folks have been making new patient appointments with Prism clinic: they are an offshoot of Cascade AIDS Project, are LGBTQ focused in all aspects, they have pretty comprehensive primary care, do a decent amount of hormone prescribing, and they also have mental behavioral health providers in the clinic as well.

They also have people who help with insurance issues and stuff. 

*Quick facts: Their most recent patient demographics report showed that approximately 10% of all their patients identify as trans or non-binary, and at least 90% of the patients that go there identify as being somewhere on the not-straight spectrum. 

Outside In has a long history of providing HRT to the trans community. They have a pretty good reputation in the Portland Queer/Trans (and wider) community, from my understanding. Looking over their programs website information they have a lot resources and support programs!

Both Prism clinic and Outside In clinic have done work to help make sure that at least some of their providers have the same background as people in the community (ie, their docs are not all white cis straight men! Some of their providers are queer; are people of color.)

We know simply sending you a list of clinic names is not necessarily super great for helping you narrow down where you want to go for care ...so, we hope the tips above will provide additional support to your process. 

Please don’t hesitate to call (503-459-2584) or email us (info@equi-institute.org) if you have any questions or are needing support in this process. During Equi’s temporary closure, there will be someone answering phones 10a-6p Monday-Wednesday and someone monitoring the email Monday-Friday.