Maria Miller in the Times

[Igneococcus]

Sounds confused:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-health-service-is-not-providing-equal-care-to-lgbt-patients-bhh9565jh?shareToken=9105424763cc2bd62e1491cb7bb16caa

Lesbian and bisexual women are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease? That's new information. Wow. Going to find out more about that.

That didn't make a lot of senses and used some very dubious 'facts'

Just been reading about that. Really interesting. Possible correlation with trauma and neglect.

I've read the report - it has a couple of frustratingly badly referenced statements about different group's health.

Lesbian and bi women being more likely to be obese stood out.

As did gay and bi men being less likely to eat their five a day.

Both of these caused much discussion in our office.

The lesbian women CVD risk jumped out at me too!

Quick google for some studies

This one of 320 Californian lesbians show they are more likely to be fatter and smoke than their heterosexual sisters

very recent meta analysis seems less convinced that there is a difference

It’s all just correlation though. Even if statistically lesbian/bi women are more likely to have CVD because they are more likely to have lifestyle risk factors like obesity/smoking, surely we should still be ‘screening’ for at-risk women by obesity/smoking, not by who they like to have sex with . It’s a misleading statement, implying that the sexuality is the risk factor.

It’s a misleading statement, implying that the sexuality is the risk factor.

Yes, exactly. The risk factors are the obesity and the smoking, which any good doctor would be taking into account anyway.

If there is a correlation I imagine it is down to the fact that until very recently homosexual people were treated as second class citizens subject to abuse and discrimination and therefore at risk of having unhealthier than average lifestyles.

So nothing to do with lesbians' sexual behaviours, but the treatment they suffer as a result of prejudice.

" If a lesbian or trans man is told that they don’t need to get a cervical smear test, this incorrect information could be potentially fatal."

so when did this ever happen to a lesbian?

why would it happen?

"sounds confused" is generous

sounds like bullshit to me

Well, if you were ever under the illusion that anyone could be a journalist given the chance, there's your counterargument.

If she has a point it would be lovely if she'd actually make it.

“so when did this ever happen to a lesbian?

why would it happen?“

there is still a lot of “urban legend” misinformation out there in which people think that if you’re not having conventional (heterosexual) sex, you don’t need to have a smear test 🤷‍♀️

I couldn't see this piece in the app version. Is it in the main section?

It's in the News section errol In the bit where they let guest authors loose (which pretty much never works out well for them).

I'm a lesbian. I know I have to have cervical smears but apart from that I really don't think my GP needs to know my sexuality or my gender identity (whatever is meant by that, I have no idea). Even at my right-on surgery I've had the odd 'Oh' followed by an embarrassed gulp when I've had to explain why I don't need contraception.

If lesbians smoke more or are more obese than the genpop (which may well be because of oppression and prejudice but equally because lesbian women aren't under the same pressure as straight women to look flawless/ behave in a ladylike manner in order to catch a high-earning, high status man) then I suspect class and prosperity come into play as much as anything. So many of the middle-class dykes I know are runners and cyclists and triathletes and vegan or vegetarian non-smokers.

In which case why aren't our GPs keeping note of other indicators such as educational attainment and income levels?

That's an odd article.

If we are not doing something as simple as recording people’s sexual orientation and gender identity, how can we know where to target NHS services? ... we have recommended that monitoring should be mandatory.

So, is this is a push to demand patients reveal their sexual orientation and 'gender identity'? Equalities information has always been voluntary, hasn't it? What about those people who don't have a 'gender identity' - re-education gulag for them?

thatdamnwoman ('genpop' - great word).

I completely agree. I've no wish to share this type of information with anyone unless its directly relevant.

If we are not doing something as simple as recording people’s sexual orientation and gender identity, how can we know where to target NHS services? ... we have recommended that monitoring should be mandatory.

Which services though? And recording "gender identity" would first require a coherent, universally accepted or even just understood definition. Besides, it doesn't make much sense - if you identify as a man, but are female, you need a smear test not a prostate exam. Surely recording sex should be mandatory and the rest voluntary?

And I certainly wouldn't be happy having any such information be mandatory. I don't have a gender identity, I have a sex. And given that actual homophobia continues to be an issue, I would not support any mandatory monitoring of people's sexuality either. This may sound a bit tinfoil-hatty, but never ever give the state more information about yourself than absolutely necessary. You never know what the next government might decide to do with that data.

there is still a lot of “urban legend” misinformation out there in which people think that if you’re not having conventional (heterosexual) sex, you don’t need to have a smear test

Nonetheless, cervical cancer is exceptionally rare in women who have never had penetrative sex with a man.

Nonetheless, cervical cancer is exceptionally rare in women who have never had penetrative sex with a man.

The NHS say that this is 'fake news'.

www.england.nhs.uk/2019/06/fake-news-putting-50000-lesbian-gay-and-bisexual-women-at-risk-of-cancer/

How can they monitor 'gender identity' when so many people don't have one? And what does identifying as a walking sexist stereotype have to do with health care needs anyway?

If we are not doing something as simple as recording people’s sexual orientation and gender identity, how can we know where to target NHS services? ... we have recommended that monitoring should be mandatory.

Gender identity, whatever that is, is meaningless in a medical sense. Biological sex, on the other hand, has a direct bearing on ensuring that appropriate medical procedures, processes and treatments are made available according to national and local population demographics.

It is heartening to have confirmation that Maria Miller, Chairwoman of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, is absolutely clear in her own mind about the difference

Maria, you are part of the problem.

Let me correct something for you Maria.

If we are not doing something as simple as recording people's sex how can we know where to target NHS services?

The common belief that lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) women are not at risk of cervical cancer is fake news.

What stands out for me about this statement is the idiotic use of "lesbian, gay and bisexual". What they mean is "lesbian". No one thinks that bisexual women are not at risk of cervical cancer. The words "lesbian" and "gay" mean the same thing. I get really irritated by this misuse of language, particularly in a health context.

That aside, there is a difference between "not at risk" and "at low risk". It's easier to transmit the HPV virus through heterosexual sex than it is through lesbian sex. A woman who has had a lot of male sexual partners is at particularly high risk - more so than a woman who has just had one male sexual partner.

Absolutely, CharlieParley. While superficially some parts of the world seem a much better place to be a lesbian than they used to be, the internet has exposed the extent of everyday misogyny and homophobia beneath the surface.

Back in the early noughties, with the advent of civil partnerships and other rights, the world felt like a safer place to be lesbian or gay. Now we know that hard-fought rights can turn on a sixpence I have no intention of giving some future populist right-wing government any more information about me than absolutely necessary.

I'm not the least bit tempted to have my lesbian sexuality added to the notes the NHS already have on me. In my experience it is much safer not to disclose that information since it can result in negative stereotyping and unpleasant behaviour from those members of the health care staff who are prejudiced against lesbians. I already get more than enough dismissal and prejudgement for being fat. Why hand them the added ammunition that I am a sexual deviant too, knowing that it would be used against me at times when I am at my most weak, vulnerable and incapable of defending myself?

This smells like exactly the same kind of shite as the current pressures being put on women to add she/her pronouns to their business e-mail signatures, thereby allowing all recipients to detect their lowly female status and discriminate accordingly!

Where is the benefit for lesbians or for women who are managing to fly under the radar, in flagging up their status? Any woman who ever used a male name on an internet forum knows that men and women are treated very differently. Lesbians know that we get targeted for an extra share of the abuse reserved for women. Why would we want to expose ourselves to that risk knowing that there are no systems in place to protect us?

It is just more of the same clueless, harmful bullshit, dreamt up by narcissistic "genderqueer" people, who are currently enjoying the attention they get when they put on some blue lipstick and dress up in the kind of ridiculous clown clothes that make people stare at them, so that they can feign outrage at being stared at. They get off on being able to force everyone else to dance around their extra special identities and pronouns. I am 100% sure that if the political climate changes, and becomes one where being "queer" means you risk imprisonment, torture and execution, the genderqueers will put away their lipstick and blend into the baying mob, joining in the persecution of the lesbians and gays in the same way they now are currently hounding women they've dehumanised as TERFS.