Aging Gracefully With HIV Starts With Talking to Your Doctor thebody.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thebody.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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LGBTQ+ people in Chicago are more at risk for certain health conditions but less likely to receive care. The social inequality and stigma afflicting the LGBTQ+ and TGNC (transgender and gender non-conforming) populations in Chicago creates a health-care quandary; they’re more susceptible to issues such as HIV, cancer, and suicide, yet less likely to receive care. Nationally, LGBT youth are two to three times more likely to attempt suicide, gay men are at higher risk for HIV and other STDs, and transgender individuals have a higher prevalence of mental health issues, HIV/STDs, suicide, and less access to health insurance, according to the CDC.
Older Black Women Aren’t Being Told About PrEP to Prevent HIV
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Patients should feel safe to discuss any aspect of their sexual health with their care providers. Whether it is an unexpected discharge, a hard-to-explain injury, or a request for sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, medical professionals should be available to offer their patients the information and services they need. Unfortunately, that is not how it goes for many Black women in this country when it comes to HIV, particularly when they are older.
Case in point: Though they only make up 13% of all women in the U.S., Black women accounted for 57% of all women who tested positive for HIV in 2018. In addition to this disproportionate representation, what makes this statistic so alarming is that most Black women are unaware that they are at risk for seroconversion or that pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is available to protect them from HIV.