March 20, 2008
Access to health care and sexual orientation in Canada
From Canada.com:
"The theory is that disenfranchised groups might access (the health-care system) differently, might have difficulty accessing it, so we wanted to look at whether this is also the case for sexual orientation," said the study's author Michael Tjepkema.
"It is true that gays, lesbians, bisexual men and women do access different types of the health-care system differently from heterosexual Canadians," he said of his findings.
"The striking example for me would be looking at lesbians and Pap smear testing," said Tjepkema.
Less than two-thirds of lesbians reported having a Pap test within three years of the survey, well below the more than three-quarters of heterosexual and bisexual women who had the screening test.
"The lower screening rate among lesbians could be in response to past negative experiences with health-care providers, the belief that the test is not necessary, or not usually taking birth control pills, renewal of prescriptions for which can be an opportunity for doctors to discuss and administer the Pap test," the study said.
Lesbians and bisexual women were also less likely to report having a regular family doctor than heterosexual women, the study found.