This document offers a brief but comprehensive overview of the major issues relevant to the health and health care of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The authors discuss LGBT demographics, terminology, and concepts; they also review LGBT health disparities across the life span. Clinicians and health care organizations will learn steps they can take to improve access to patient-centered care for their LGBT patients, including collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity, creating a welcoming environment and providing interventions that respond to LGBT disparities.
Learning Resources — Publications
Addressing the Needs of LGBT People in Community Health Centers: What the Governing Board Needs to Know
This two-page brochure offers a brief overview of LGBT people and their health needs written specifically for governing board members of community health centers. Action steps for change are also included.
- Filed under
- Organizational Change
Promoting Cervical Cancer Screening Among Lesbians and Bisexual Women
This Fenway Institute analysis examines the heightened risk profile of lesbians and bisexual women, such as lower rates of health insurance coverage and less access to preventive health care, including routine pelvic exams. It also describes efforts in the UK and Australia to promote Pap tests among lesbians, and why it is important to offer Pap tests to some transgender men, many of whom retain a cervix and may be at risk for cervical cancer. Providers should also be trained in broader LGBT health issues, so that they are equipped to provide clinically competent care to lesbian and bisexual women and transgender men in ways that are sensitive and culturally competent.
- Filed under
- Sexual Minority Women
Emergency Preparedness and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender (LGBT) People: What Health Centers Need to Know
Health centers often serve as a key resource during a natural disaster or other public health emergency. Before an emergency strikes, it is important for health centers to consider the unique needs and circumstances of vulnerable populations, including LGBT individuals and families in the community.
- Filed under
- Organizational Change
Emerging Clinical Issue: Hepatitis C Infection in HIV-Infected Men Who Have Sex with Men
Approximately 3.2 million individuals in the United States are infected with chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection. While injection drug use is the most common mode of transmission, growing evidence indicates that the virus is also being spread through sexual contact, particularly among HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM). In this clinical brief, we review what is known about the epidemiology of HCV among HIV-infected MSM, as well as current screening, treatment, and prevention recommendations for HCV.
- Filed under
- HIV/STI Treatment and Prevention
The Fenway Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health, 2nd Edition
American College of Physicians (ACP), 2015. Editors: Harvey Makadon, MD, Jennifer Potter, MD, Kenneth Mayer, MD and Hilary Goldhammer, MS of the Fenway Institute, Fenway Health
This new 2nd edition of The Fenway Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health reflects clinical and social changes since the publication of the first edition.
Written by leading experts in the field of LGBT health in conjunction with The Fenway Institute at Fenway Health, this edition continues to present the important issues facing patients and practitioners, including:
- Principles for taking an LGBT-inclusive health history
- Caring for LGBTQ youth, families, and older adults
- Behavioral Health Care: coming out, intimate partner violence, drug, alcohol, and tobacco use
- Understanding health care needs of transgender people
- Development of gender identity in children and adolescents
- Sexual health and HIV prevention
- Policy and legal issues
For more information and to order copies: ACP Online
- Filed under
- Introduction to LGBTQIA+ Health
Promoting HPV Vaccine To Prevent Genital Warts and Cancers
Human papilloma virus (HPV), one of the most common sexually transmitted infections, is preventable through a vaccine now recommended for all females and males age 11 to 26. However, vaccination rates remain low in the U.S., in part because only one-third of doctors prescribe the vaccine to eligible patients. HPV infection can lead to genital warts and certain types of cancer. This brief provides an analysis of the current state of HPV vaccination rates in the U.S., finding them lagging well behind other countries, where vaccination campaigns have been more successful.
