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UBC study seeks stories about LGBT cancer care
Fewer lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have a regular doctor, researcher says
By Erin Ellis, Vancouver Sun
August 2, 2012

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/study+seeks+stories+about+LGBT+cancer+care/7033577/story.html (http://www.vancouversun.com/health/study+seeks+stories+about+LGBT+cancer+care/7033577/story.html)

Doctors receive about three hours of training on how to treat "sexually diverse" people and that means health risks are often overlooked, says a University of B.C. researcher.

Mary Bryson, director of the Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at UBC, hopes to change that. She is conducting a three-year, $450,000 study funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to interview lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people who have had breast cancer or a gynecological cancer.

LGBT people have a unique experience, she says, because they often deal with discrimination or a void in medical experience about their specific health risks.

A transgender woman who has had a vagina surgically constructed from penile skin, for instance, is at risk of vaginal cancer, Bryson points out. But few doctors would think to check for it, usually resulting in a late-stage discovery of the condition.

"These are people whose health needs are not being including in the standard cancer protocol," Bryson said Thursday in a telephone interview from San Francisco, Calif., where she is concluding the first phase of research for the project.
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For more information: http://queercancer.org/ (http://queercancer.org/)