The absurdity of doctor responses to lesbian sex
The medical sector still has to go far in treating the LGBTQ community properly. Case in point: check out these doctor responses to lesbians having sex.
Absurd doctor responses to lesbian sex
Ruth Hunt, chief executive of the UK LGBTQ group Stonewall, tweeted an incident that epitomized this feeling of not knowing whether to laugh or cry for us.
In their conversation, the doctor asked her: “Are you using contraception?”
Responding in the negative, Hunt was asked by her doctor if she was trying to get pregnant.
“No,” she replied, which then followed a (pregnant, pun intended) pause. She then said, “I’m gay.”
The doctor then said, “No sex at all then?”
At this point, we can cue a thousand and one facepalms.
Hunt’s tweet, of course, unleashed of a slew of similar stories on Twitter.
From Twitter user Laujo
Doctor: When did you last have sex?
Me: Last week
Doctor: So you could be pregnant!
Me: No– it was with a woman
Doc: That isn’t sex!
(Cue eye rolls)
Kassandra Brabaw, writing for Refinery29, wrote that her experiences when meeting her doctor for the first time run a similar vein:
Doctor: Are you sexually active?
Me: Yes.
Doctor: Are you using protection?
Me: No.
Doctor: *shocked face* You know, you really should be using some form of protection if you’re not trying to get pregnant…
Me: I’m a lesbian.
Doctor: …oh.
Meanwhile, Twitter user swinmill related:
“Sadly I had a similar conversation around Smear Tests. Ended with locum Dr asking me what so did in bed and ‘who was the man’. Really.”
Twitter user Ruth Harley said:
“Last time I had an xray, there was no box they could tick to accurately record my response to “how can you be sure you aren’t pregnant?””
Twitter user Gayle Anderson said:
“Doc assumed I was straight. Got a lecture on risk of pregnancy during menopause.Said I was gay.She got angry & asked why not on my records.”
Lastly, Twitter user emma fucking bovary said:
“friend was denied a crucial scan because she’d had sex within the past 30 days and thus might be pregnant”.
Doctor responses a requirement in UK
Hunt tweeted her own experience in response to reports that the National Health Services in the UK issued a new rule in which doctors have to record their patients’ sexual orientations by 2019.
On the medical forms, patients will be asked “Which of the following options best describes how you think of yourself?”
The responses range from: “Heterosexual or Straight,” “Gay or Lesbian,” “Bisexual,” “Other,” and “Don’t Know.” If the patient refuses to answer this, the sexuality can be listed as “Not stated.”
This will be pretty helpful for the LGBTQ community as it would inform doctors and nurses on how to best to treat their patients.
How about you? What are your facepalm/ eye-roll moments with medical personnel?