Medical School Cirriculum

             I personally never thought that if someone was having sexual relations with the same sex there would be many sexually transmitted diseases being spread. After doing much research I have been proven wrong. Not only did I not know about all the diseases that can be transmitted, many doctors do not know either. A study was conducted that looked at how many people in this community actually consult doctors about their health care. The study found that about 29% of gay men (in the survery) consulted a medical specialist in the 12 months before the survey, compared with 19% of heterosexual men(Tjepkema, 2008). This shows that not only does almost half of the gay male community actually consult doctors about their health but actually more gay men then straight men do. This leads me to wonder why medical schools focus on the population that is less concerned.

            One would think that over time curriculum would change as society changes. Especially with topics that are becoming more prevalent in society today, such as sexually transmitted diseases. This is wrong though, in fact “the average amount of time medical schools spend teaching students about health issues facing the LGBT community is about five hours over the entire curriculum, according to a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine published in the Journal of American Medical Association” (Postmedia News, 2011). This surprised me because I thought that with the growing LGBQT community more time would be taken to study the health issues pertaining to this group. Students were interviewed to see if this little bit of curriculum on the topic was enough. “Of the 150 survey respondents, 70 per cent described their school's coverage of 16 LGBT-related topics, like HIV and STIs, gender identity, and mental health issues, as "fair", "poor" or "very poor."” (Fletcher, 2011).

            Although doctors are now questioning patients on their sexual orientation so that they know which diseases to check for they still do not check for certain ones. This is because there are many misconceptions of what diseases certain people can obtain. Many know that men can transmit sexual diseases to other men but it is a common misconception that women can catch cervical cancer from each other, which is untrue. Many women are going untreated because doctors are not informed enough about the different ways these diseases can be spread. I think that more time should be allotted to studying diseases pertaining to people in the LGBQT community.

            The Liberal Party is expected to promote the positive purpose of ensuring that all citizens, without any discrimination, will be in a position to take advantage of the opportunities opened up; of the freedoms that have been won (Canadahistory.com). In this post these opportunities pertain to the medical care that all of Canada is given. How can citizens take advantage of the free health care if the doctors taking care of them are not fully informed though?

            I hope that this issue becomes more talked about and medical schools start adding more of this education into their curriculum.

Works Cited

Fletcher, T. (2011, September 27). Medical schools failing to cover LGBT health issues. Canada.com. Retrieved January 2, 2013, from http://www.canada.com/health/Medical+schools+failing+cover+LGBT+health+issues+Study/5366742/story.html

On Liberalism. (n.d.). Canada History. Retrieved January 2, 2013, from http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/documents/leaders/Pearson/On%20Liberalism.html

Tjepkema, M. (2008, November 17). Health care use among gay, lesbian and bisexual Canadians. Statistics Canada. Retrieved January 2, 2013, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080319/dq080319b-eng.htm

Alexandra B