Ava Mrima, a 26-year-old transgender woman, living in Nairobi, Kenya, painfully recalls her transition six years ago. She had fled a father hostile to her gender identity. All alone with little money and even less information on transitioning, she braved the road toward womanhood.
Her entire transition was self-medicated. Online search results and social media posts were her sources of information as she bought transgender hormone replacement therapy drugs from a local pharmacist who showed open spite for her changing physical appearance.
Studies show that compared with cisgender people — whose gender identity corresponds to their sex at birth — and heterosexual peers, sexual and gender minorities are more likely to face barriers to accessing appropriate health care, despite being at a higher risk for some diseases.
About the author
Anthony Langat
Anthony Langat is a Kenya-based Devex Contributing Reporter whose work centers on environment, climate change, health, and security. He was part of an International Consortium of Investigative Journalism’s multi-award winning 2015 investigation which unearthed the World Bank’s complacence in the evictions of indigenous people across the world. He has five years’ experience in development and investigative reporting and has been published by Al Jazeera, Mongabay, Us News & World Report, Equal Times, News Deeply, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Devex among others.
