Archive for Uncategorized
Gay & Bisexual Prostate Cancer Survey
Posted by: | CommentsGay and Bisexual men diagnosed with Prostate Cancer are invited to participate in a survey. David Latini, PhD, the Houston Texas Malecare Gay Men with Prostate Cancer support group leader, is one of the principle investigators. This survey began in September 2008 and will continue until 100 men are interviewed.
The Scott Department of Urology at Baylor College of Medicine and Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, are trying to understand how prostate cancer affects the lives of gay and bisexual men. The survey explores how gay men feel about their prostate cancer diagnosis, what treatments they have received, and how those treatments may have affected their lives and relationships.
You’ll get a short phone call to make sure you are eligible and then you’ll be asked to complete a web-based survey. That will take about 45 minutes.
The survey will include questions about how prostate cancer has affected your health and your relationships. Some questions will ask about treatment-related side-effects.
Partners of participants are also encouraged to join the survey. Partners will be invited to complete a separate web-based survey about his experience, as a partner of a man with prostate cancer.
You get $20 if you participate.
All information is CONFIDENTIAL
To be a part of the study, please call or email:
Phone: 1-866-643-7604
Any questions you may have about being a gay or bisexual man or a transgender woman and diagnosed with prostate cancer can be emailed to darryl@malecare.com
Hospitals Must Adopt a Comprehensive Visitation Policy
Posted by: | CommentsOut With Cancer asks all Hospitals and Health Care facilities to carry out their commitment to quality patient care by adopting a comprehensive visitation policy that:
1. Affirms all patients’ rights to have visitors;
2. Includes same sex-partners and their children in its definition of family and does not restrict visitors to biological family members;
3. Outlines a clear process for determining when visitors will be restricted and how that will be communicated; and
4. Includes a grievance procedure that can be acted on quickly in an emergency situation.
Lesbian Women should test for Cervical Cancer
Posted by: | CommentsApproximately 2800 British women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. While it is second biggest killer of women in their thirties, Cervical cancer is one of the more preventable cancers. Early detection with cervical cancer testing might save even more lives.
Cervical Cancer is a significant risk for lesbian women. Increased risk happens around exposure to two particular strains of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). These two strains of HPV can be transmitted through sex between men and women as well as between women.
A supplementary report for South Centralin the UK produced from the Stonewall survey in 2007 showed the following results for Portsmouth Primary Care:
- 56% of Lesbian/bisexual women had never been tested for STI’s or any other vaginal conditions.
- 21% had never had a smear test. 10% had not had a smear test in 10 years.
- 39% of women identifying as bisexual are having sexual intercourse with both men and women.
- 85% of total respondents report having had sexual intercourse with men at some point in their sexual history.
We should also consider the statistic suggesting that 54% of respondents who have had a negative experience of PCT healthcare involvoing smear testing of lesbian and bisexual women.
Clearly, more education and testing opportunities would go a long way towards saving more lives in our Lesbian community.
LGBT Health Scholarship
Posted by: | CommentsJackson Memorial Hospital in Miami says they don’t have to allow their patients visitors
Posted by: | CommentsBelow is an action alert, from the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. We at Out With Cancer are as appalled as the GLMA, and we endorse this notice.
Janice Langbehn and Lisa Pond, together 18 years, were about to depart from Miami on a family cruise with their three children, when Lisa suddenly collapsed. From the moment Janice and the children arrived atJackson Memorial Hospital, they encountered prejudice and apathy. The hospital refused to accept information from Janice regarding Lisa’s medical history, informing her that she was in an antigay city and state and that she could expect to receive no information or acknowledgment as family. A doctor finally spoke with Janice, telling her that there was no chance of recovery. Despite the doctor’s acknowledgment that no medical reason existed to prevent visitation — and despite the fact that Janice held a durable healthcare power of attorney for Lisa – hospital staff refused to allow Janice or the couple’s children to see Lisa until nearly eight hours after their arrival.
Lambda Legal has filed a lawsuit against JacksonMemorial Hospital, on behalf of Janice Langbehn and her three children. In its response to the lawsuit, the hospital does not dispute Janice’s account of what happened that night. Instead, they claim they did nothing wrong.
Jackson Memorial Hospital’s position – as reflected in black in white and in public documents – is that [1]:
“Defendants owe no legal duty to provide attention to patients’ family members or other visitors.”
“There is nothing within the advance directives statute that would have required doctors or nurses to speak to Ms. Langbehn other than to seek consent regarding a medical procedure that required consent.”
“There is no duty (regardless of a fiduciary relationship) to provide information or visitation to a patient’s visitors.”
As reflected in the legal documents, Jackson Memorial Hospital believes that: (1) they have no obligation to allow their patients visitors; (2) they do not have to allow a healthcare surrogate to actually see the patient on whose behalf they are making healthcare decisions; and (3) that their doctors do not have to share any “particular amount of information” with family members.
The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) is appalled by the hospital’s positions and has established the Committee for Fair Visitation at Jackson Memorial Hospital to ensure that what happened to Lisa and her family doesn’t continue to happen to other patients at Jackson Memorial.
We are calling on the hospital to carry out its commitment to quality patient care by adopting a comprehensive visitation policy that: affirms all patients’ rights to have visitors; includes same sex-partners and their children in its definition of family and/or does not restrict visitors to biological family members; outlines a clear process for determining when visitors will be restricted and how that will be communicated; and includes a grievance procedure that can be acted on quickly in an emergency situation.
Out With Cancer will publish updates on this.
LGBT Question on the National Health Interview Survey
Posted by: | CommentsOur Appropriations Request Is Moving!! Ask Your Senator to Sign On in Support of an LGBT Question on the National Health Interview Survey
A few weeks ago, Out With Cancer asked for your support in calling your Representatives.
Thanks to your efforts, 46 Representatives supported the addition of an LGBT question to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Now Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) is leading the charge in the Senate to rally support for appropriating the $2 million necessary to add this question. The Senator has begun circulating a sign-on “Dear Colleague” letter in the Senate to show support for adding $2 million in increased funding to the budget for the National Center for Health Statistics, which will pay all costs associated with adding a question about sexual orientation and gender identity to NHIS.
This survey helps set the federal government’s priorities in funding health programs, so gathering data on LGBT demographics is vital for demonstrating the importance of LGBT health concerns and pushing for increased funding for services for the LGBT community.
This will help us learn more about the health and psycho-social treatment needs of
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people diagnosed with cancer. Contact your Senator today to ask them to sign onto the Whitehouse Letter in the Senate.
To contact your Senator, please call the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121, tell them your state, and ask to speak to your Senator. When you are connected to your Senator’s office, ask for the staff member who works on Health and Human Services appropriations. Tell them that you are a constituent who supports appropriating an additional $2 million for the National Health Interview Survey and that you would like them to sign on. In order to sign on, they need to contact Jordanna Davis in Senator Whitehouse’s office by close of business on Friday, May 1.
Mazzoni LGBT Health Center receives grant
Posted by: | CommentsMazzoni LGBT health center in Philadelphia received it’s fourth annual Komen Grant. Mazzoni Center executive director Nurit Shein said the grant will allow the facility to continue its efforts to promote breast health in the local lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual communities. Mazzoni has received the grant for the past four years.
“This allows us to do clinical breast exams and referrals for mammography for women who don’t have insurance,” Shein said, adding the funding also will assist the center in producing its Lesbian Health Resource Guide.
LGBT Inclusion on National Health Survey
Posted by: | CommentsToday, April 1, is the last day that Representatives can sign on to the request for the $2 million necessary to add a question on the LGBT population to the federal government’s most important and comprehensive health survey, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). As we told you earlier, Representatives Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Anthony Weiner (D-NY), and Donna Christensen (D-VI) have been circulating a sign-on “Dear Colleague” letter in the House to show support for adding $2 million in increased funding to the budget for the National Center for Health Statistics, which will pay all costs associated with adding a question about sexual orientation and gender identity to NHIS.
Contact your Representative today to ask them to sign onto the Baldwin-Weiner-Christensen Letter in the House. It is especially that the Representatives listed below are contacted. The Representatives are organized by state.
To contact your Representative, please call the House of Representatives switchboard at (202) 224-3121, give your zip code, and ask to speak to your Representative. When you are connected, ask for the staff member who works on Health and Human Services appropriations. Tell them that you are a constituent who supports appropriating an additional $2 million for the National Health Interview Survey and that you would like them to sign on. In order to sign on, they need to contact Rebecca Fox at the National Coalition for LGBT Health, by email at Rebecca@lgbthealth.net or by phone at (202) 436-0228. They must email Rebecca by 7 PM EST TODAY.
Lesbian Cancer Survivors Talk
Posted by: | CommentsDr. Ronit Elk, psychologist and out Lesbian, talks with three women about their survivorship experience from their perspective as lesbians, talking about issues like some of the discrimination by health professionals, some of the difficulties that lesbian women may experience in terms of insurance; other things like finding support and where we can find it and maybe have new ways to generate support. Another issue is taking responsibility for our own health and well-being; and finally, becoming advocates for ourselves and for our community, because that way we can just broaden the assistance to so many people. Marie is a 42-year-old breast cancer survivor. She is un-partnered, and she doesn’t have children. Marie, were you diagnosed in 2001? Marie:Yes, I was. Actually I was diagnosed four days before September 11th. Dr. Ronit Elk: Oh, boy! That must have been tough. Marie: Yeah, what a week, huh? Dr. Ronit Elk: Oh, what a week! Marie: [laughs] Dr. Ronit Elk: You had two months of diagnostic testing, and for some reason it was sort of difficult to diagnose this, but when they finally did, you had–let me tell you what I think, and then you just tell me if this is correct or not. Marie:OK. Dr. Ronit Elk: You had stage III breast cancer. You had a mastectomy, a lymph node dissection, then you had reconstructive surgery, which I’d like to touch on later, if you don’t mind. Marie: No, that’s a correction. I had planned to have reconstructive surgery– Read More→
Medical advice ‘puts lesbians at risk of cervical cancer’
Posted by: | Comments
Research has suggested that government guidelines should be revised to ensure more lesbian women are screened for cervical cancer.
Currently, NHS advice states that women who have never been sexually active with a man have a very low risk of the disease, suggesting these women may decline to attend cervical smear tests.
However, a study published in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care has claimed that most lesbians have had sexual contact with a man and that HPV (the virus responsible for most cervical cancers) can also be spread by female-to-female sexual contact. Read More→
