To interpret how socially marginalized people experience stigma, disclosure, dignity, and belonging in community-pharmacy encounters and to construct a higher-order explanation through reciprocal and refutational translation. Meta-ethnography conducted using Noblit-and-Hare interpretive logic and contemporary eMERGe reporting principles. Eight PubMed-indexed discovery searches were executed on 14 September 2026 and supplemented by citation chaining and targeted verification. Searches addressed stigma and marginalization; opioid treatment; transgender and gender-diverse experience; LGBTQ+ experience; ethnic-minority medicines advice; migrant/refugee pharmaceutical care; HIV-related stigma; and homelessness/social disadvantage. Qualitative evidence was eligible when it contained service-user experience of community pharmacy among socially marginalized, stigmatized, structurally disadvantaged, or identity-vulnerable populations and contributed meanings concerning stigma, privacy, disclosure, recognition, dignity, trust, avoidance, engagement, or belonging. The searches identified 108 records. After removal of 24 duplicates, 84 unique records were screened; 47 were excluded at title/abstract screening. Thirty-seven reports were sought, two could not be retrieved, and 35 were assessed in full. Five were excluded after full-text assessment. Thirty reports representing 27 underlying studies entered the meta-ethnography. First-order participant meanings were separated from primary authors’ interpretations and review-generated third-order constructs. Reciprocal translation examined concepts that travelled meaningfully across settings; refutational translation retained tensions and contradictory meanings. Across different marginalizations, pharmacy use could make socially sensitive identities, treatments, or circumstances visible. Disclosure was therefore negotiated in relation to privacy, prior treatment, trust, cultural and linguistic fit, and anticipated judgment. Dignity was strengthened by respectful recognition, non-degrading treatment, and appropriate responsiveness to difference. Avoidance, concealment, shortened interactions, and pharmacy switching could operate simultaneously as self-protection and reduced access. The synthesis conceptualized belonging as a revisable relational condition rather than an automatic consequence of pharmacy accessibility. Community-pharmacy accessibility does not by itself guarantee that marginalized people can seek medicines without social exposure or degradation. Relational accessibility depends on whether the encounter preserves control over disclosure, supports dignified recognition, and permits repeated participation without renewed defence of social legitimacy.
