By Elizabeth Horan Managing Editor
Are you out with your family? Yes? No? It’s okay if you aren’t and it’s great if you are. Are you out with your doctor(s)? Yes? No? You should be. Doctors have doctor/patient confidentiality and most of the time they can’t tell anyone, unless you give them permission to, about your medical happenings. If you’re out to your doctor, you would be helping them and yourself. If you’re out, you can be treated with the most care and the most accuracy possible. Are you out to your doctor? Yes? No? Consider it if you aren’t.
Recently, I was in the emergency room for abdominal pain. After ruling out appendicitis, they found a cyst on my Fallopian tube. In the ER, the OB/GYN asked if I was sexually active. I said yes… well, kind of.
Now, if I wasn’t up front and honest about my sexuality, the doctors wouldn’t be able to evaluate me in the right context and give me the correct care I would need. When I was asked if I was sexually active and gave the doctor the answer mentioned above, my mom told me to be honest and more specific. I thought, alright, it’s probably for the best. I then admitted to the doctor that I was bisexual and I was sexually active with a female, who was my girlfriend.
As a part of the LGBT community, of course I was nervous about being judged by my doctor. I don’t know anyone who is not afraid of being judged by anyone. When I told the OB/GYN about my sexuality, she didn’t judge. I felt very comfortable around her. Being comfortable is important to me when I’m dealing with a doctor.
After figuring out that the cyst was so large, the doctors starting talking about surgery. They knew they had to remove the cyst, but they didn’t know if they could avoid removing the Fallopian tube and ovary. They told me it was possible, but they wouldn’t know for sure until they were in there. Possible removal of some of my reproductive organs made me nervous. Even though I am bisexual and with a female, I plan on having children some day. I did ask if the surgery would affect my fertility and my doctor assured me it would not.
According to the American Cancer Society, lesbians and bisexual women don’t go for routine check ups, compared to other women. The most common cancers among women are breast, colon, ovarian, uterine, and lung cancers. Lesbians and bisexual women also don’t get regular breast exams and cervical cancer screenings. It is very important for every woman to get regular screenings and go to their routine appointments every year because it will help prevent cancer or other diseases, or it will help catch these diseases at an early stage; early stages are more treatable than later stages.
Some of the reasons why lesbians and bisexual women do not go to the doctor regularly are:
- Fear of discrimination affecting their health care.
- Fear from previous negative experiences with health care providers reoccurring.
- They have low rates of health insurance, or no health insurance coverage at all, because of their sexuality.
If you, or someone you know, wants to receive the best health care possible and you think your sexual orientation will get in the way of that, check out the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association‘s website at glma.org. Here you can search for LGBT friendly health care providers, find out how GLMA is contributing to the civil rights movement of the LGBT community, or donate to GLMA’s cause.
