“I have been refused medical care by my own peers many times,” she said.

Doctors — her own peers — have shamed and ridiculed her, including a family doctor who refused to care for her after she publicly came out as transgender.

You don't have to tell Dr. Laura Arrowsmith that.

Transgender individuals frequently face discrimination, harassment and rejection in society, and that includes the doctor's office.

Those types of experiences are what led Arrowsmith to open up an Oklahoma City clinic.

The clinic offers hormone therapy to members of the transgender community who wish to transition to their desired gender role.

“Some people are quite comfortable living in their desired gender role only,” she said. “Some people live in gender role and take hormones, and what's under their clothes is irrelevant to them. Some people need all the surgeries available to feel they're living as their true selves.”

The Monday clinic also offers screenings like Pap smears, breast exams and STD testing to transgender individuals. Beyond that, Arrowsmith hopes she can provide patients the respect and understanding she did not receive when she came out as transgender twenty years ago.