Health Affairs June 4, 2025
On a cool spring evening in 2017, Law Professor Jennifer Oliva (an author of this piece) received a harrowing phone call from a stranger. “They are going to kill me,” said a man we’ll call Brian. A small-town police officer, Brian knew that his colleagues liked to amuse themselves by perusing the state’s prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). The PDMP contains information about controlled substances dispensed to individuals in the state—including opioids, anti-anxiety medications, and testosterone. Brian had a secret contained within the database: He was a trans man who took testosterone to ensure that his physical body matched his identity. Knowing the stigma against trans people in his town, he had kept his status from his co-workers. Now they...
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