A new survey published today in the Journal of American Medicine reveals that medical schools don’t teach doctors-to-be very much about health issues particular to the LGBT community.
According to the Web-based survey, which garnered responses from 85% of U.S. and Canadian medical schools, an average of five hours in the entire curriculum was devoted to LGBT-related material. (A third had none during the years students work with patients.) More than a fourth of the deans surveyed reported their school’s coverage of 16 related topics—including sexual-reassignment surgery, mental health issues and HIV/AIDS— was “poor” or “very poor.”
Beyond simply taking a patient’s sexual history, doctors must be educated on how to “carry [the] conversation as far as it needs to go,” lead author Dr. Juno Obedin-Maliver, an ob-gyn at the University of California, San Francisco, told CBS News. Otherwise, there are false assumptions and mistakes. For example, lesbians and straight women alike need regular Pap smears to test for STDS but, explains Obedin-Maliver, “I’ve had lesbian patients come to me and say, ‘I haven’t had a Pap test in 20 years because my doctors said I didn’t need one.'”
That’s why we have a gay doctor. Well, that and the fact that he’s gorgeous and has a house in the Pines.
How about we take this to the next level?
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the crustybastard
DR: …and are you sexually active?
LIPSTICK LESBIAN: Yes.
DR: What kind of birth control do you use?
LL: Girls.
DR: What…? OH! Oh, okay, I see. Heh. Wow. Well, then…
True story.
tenshinigami
This doesn’t surprise me at at all.
I remember one time I was visiting my (then new) doctor, and he suggested that I donate blood. When I told him I legally couldn’t he gave me a very confused “Why not?” Then I explained how sexually active gay men are basically banned from giving blood. His “Bwuuuh?” probably could be heard from space.
Things are improving though. I recently change doctors to this old, super amusing Jewish doctor. He had a student with him during my initial exam, new patient interview, etc. When I told him I am gay, he explained to the student in surprising detail why it’s important to stay informed on the different medical challenges between straight and gay, how the doctor community can be extremely homophobic, and so on. I was very impressed. I was also pleased because his attitude, tone and questions toward me didn’t change. It just felt like one big “Oh whatever, it’s all the same” to him. Oh sure, they changed slightly in terms of subject matter, but there wasn’t a hint of stigma to any of it.
So hey, there’s hope.
Thomas Maguire
Do I, as a homo, have “health issues” that my straight counterparts don’t?
I know I didn’t go to the BEST school (Go Trojans!!) but last time I checked, I have the same parts as my brother, who is straight.
Motard
@Thomas Maguire:
The point is that you use them a little differently, dear.
ewe
Years ago, i had a dentist at UCSF say something about him thinking i had HIV because i had to have a loose tooth pulled out. I said “NO, I HAVE A LOOSE TOOTH FROM YEARS OF NOT FLOSSING ENOUGH. BAD DENTAL HYGEINE. YOU ARE INSULTING.” That shut him up. Ignorant jackass.
ewe
He then went on to say that people with HIV tend to have gum disease. So do people with heart conditions but he didn’t ask me if i had a heart attack.
Hyhybt
@ewe: And of course, as you suggested, people who don’t take care of their teeth, but some people just can’t believe the obvious explanation.
ewe
@Hyhybt: so true. i know. i was flabergasted.