Here's an interesting article, entitled "Medical Schools Neglect Gay and Gender Issues," that was released a few days ago in the "Health" section of the NY Times: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/medical-schools-teach-little-about-gay-health-issues/?scp=1&sq=gender&st=cse
The author is a physician who speaks for her fellow colleagues in the medical world when she explains, "While we had been trained well in treating cancer with the best chemotherapy regimen, curing flesh-eating infections with the most powerful antibiotics or transplanting organs with the greatest of ease, when it came to caring for patients who were transgender, we were lost. For many of us, the same could be said for lesbian, gay and bisexual patients as well." She goes on to describe the general disparities in health care for the LGBT community, which is not aided by the fact that in medical school, "while nearly all the students were learning to ask patients about the gender of their sexual partners, a majority of medical schools devoted only five hours to teaching anything more than that simple question. Fully one-third of schools allotted no time at all."
The little training and education about this issue that students do receive tends to disregard the complexities behind the health-related problems these patients often deal with: "L.G.B.T. patients tend to be more isolated and have higher rates of chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. And because of the discrimination they face and fear, many also have difficulty gaining access to care and thus face an increased risk of suicide, substance abuse and unaddressed domestic violence."
And, at the most basic level, "Just “seeing the doctor” can be fraught with tension, as it entails coming out to one’s physician."
What do you all think about this? Should it be the doctor's responsibility to "pry this information out of the patient" (as one of the reader's comments criticizes), or should it be the patient's responsibility to disclose this information?
The author is a physician who speaks for her fellow colleagues in the medical world when she explains, "While we had been trained well in treating cancer with the best chemotherapy regimen, curing flesh-eating infections with the most powerful antibiotics or transplanting organs with the greatest of ease, when it came to caring for patients who were transgender, we were lost. For many of us, the same could be said for lesbian, gay and bisexual patients as well." She goes on to describe the general disparities in health care for the LGBT community, which is not aided by the fact that in medical school, "while nearly all the students were learning to ask patients about the gender of their sexual partners, a majority of medical schools devoted only five hours to teaching anything more than that simple question. Fully one-third of schools allotted no time at all."
The little training and education about this issue that students do receive tends to disregard the complexities behind the health-related problems these patients often deal with: "L.G.B.T. patients tend to be more isolated and have higher rates of chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. And because of the discrimination they face and fear, many also have difficulty gaining access to care and thus face an increased risk of suicide, substance abuse and unaddressed domestic violence."
And, at the most basic level, "Just “seeing the doctor” can be fraught with tension, as it entails coming out to one’s physician."
What do you all think about this? Should it be the doctor's responsibility to "pry this information out of the patient" (as one of the reader's comments criticizes), or should it be the patient's responsibility to disclose this information?
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