I think that's a great topic because ive read in a couple of places that lots of gay women are reluctant to go to the doctor for regular sexual health check ups due to prejudice or they feel they are less at risk.
i think some good questions would be to target all aspects of the experience of meeting the doctor.
so questions about concerns beforehand..as in before seeing the doctor. what concerns do they have about having a sexual health check up? does worry about homophobic attitudes deter them from a check up? have past experiences of ill equipped or prejudiced doctors affected decision making about their health? do they actively seek out gay friendly or LGBT doctors before they book an appointment?
during the consultation:
does homophobia affect how much info they offer to the doctor (i,e, about sex life, practices, partners, safe sex, STDs etc)?
do they feel more comfortable with male or female doctors?
have they faced implicit or explicit homophobic attitudes by the doctor?
have their experiences been mostly positive or negative?
have these attitudes affected their likelihood of getting a pap smear or STD check?
have they changed location due to homophobia?
after the consultation:
how did they feel after consulting with the ob/gyn?
was it a positive or negative experience? did they feel uncomfortable and reluctant to get a sexual health check again?
does location and age of the ob/gyn play a part in attitude?
did they feel that the doctor was equipped with specific lgbt health knowledge about what happens in the community?
here is the national network of lgbt doctors..this might be useful im not sure. i think its US based. they might have info on lgbt sensitive training given to doctors.
http://www.glma.org/
idk if that was useful but just some interesting questions i came up with. sounds like a very interesting research project. i was planning to do one in lgbt health but never eventuated.
i would be interested in people's stories but also at the problems and how to fix them at a people level. ...and how this attitude affects decision making (whether to get a pap smear or std/hiv check for eg) for the queer woman.
this is close to something in real life for me. as a medical student in Australia we looked a bit at medical health here but the focus was entirely on either heterosexual or gay male sexual health but not so much on queer women. we had readings on male to male sex and gay male practices, even learning some terms like barebacking but not that much on gay women. apparently not enough studies havent been done and not so many prevalent issues in practice. there was a little but not that much. so i think it would be useful to do a in depth of queer women especially of colour..and i think it would be somethinig new and very relevant.
all the best with the project.
