Purpose Health seeking behavior refers to the behavior of people toward seeking their own health through provided health services. This study aims to investigate the health-seeking behaviors of transgender patients in three districts of Abbottabad, Mansehra and Haripur in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, Pakistan. The transgender community in Pakistan as a marginalized group is at high risk of avoiding health seeking behavior due to the lack of general and specialized medical treatment to cater to their medical needs. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted an ethnographic approach to investigate the health-seeking behaviors of transgender community in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan. The data collection took place between October 2021 and January 2022. The data collection process included participant observation, in-depth conversation and semi-structured interviews with the members of the transgender community who accessed health care for medical conditions and the health-care practitioners that provided medical consultation and treatment to transgender patients. Findings The analysis of the data collected resulted in the emergence of themes of the knowledge gap, societal taboos and transgender position in society. The core theme identified by the researcher was social inequality. Originality/value Lack of access to basic health facilities for transgender community is attributed to the discriminatory societal treatment received by them. It is also attributed to the perception of transgender individuals regarding the societal and cultural attitudes toward their community and the lack of information to access basic facilities of life.
Muhammad Ali (Tue,) studied this question.