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Quick Question - Ace Competent Healthcare Resources?


Sennkestra

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So I sort of impulse decided to attend an LGBTQ Healthcare issues community forum this weekend, and I wanted to have an informal list of recommended reading on ace healthcare that I can refer people to.

I have a draft started here that has a lot of great mental healthcare resources (thanks to the hard work of RFAS) , but it’s definitely light on physical healthcare resources.

(I’m literally typing it up now, which is why there are still so many TBAs for things like academic articles)

Anyway, any recommendations would be appreciated!

(I’d also be interested in aro health resources but as far as I know there are even less of those)

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I don't understand why aces would  need special health care resources.  Our bodies are no different from those of sexuals.  

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Mostly for the same reasons that other LGBT+ people need competent healthcare resources. Partly it's because medical professionals are no less ignorant about or hostile to alternative sexualities than the general population, and need to be reminded to give their asexual and LGBT+ patients the same level of respect they already give their straight patients. Partly it's also because asexual may have specific health concerns that practitioners might not be trained for. You can read the links in the document for more examples, but issues can include things like:

  • Doctors being unsure or giving actively incorrect information about whether certain gynecological exams like pap smears are necessary for adults who are not sexually active. (Technically, the CDC indicates that adults who have never been sexually active do not need pap smears, but many doctors don't actually bother to learn that, and instead make things up, including many recommendations that are wildly incorrect. )
  • Therapists demanding that their clients tell them more about asexuality, while neglecting the actual issues that the client is seeking help for. 
  • Practitioners making ignorant or outright hostile/mocking comments that leave aces too uncomfortable to seek out necessary healthcare later
  • Practitioners who make attempts or suggestions to "cure" a patients a/sexuality, including prescribing things like hormones, even when almost 100% of the time those suggestions go against all medical best practices and are based on wildly inaccurate and unscientific assumptions.

A lot of it is not "special resources" so much as "reminders not to be a dick to your patients" - things like reminders that it's not ok to mock your patients for being sexually inexperienced, or that you shouldn't demand that your patients submit to unnecessary and invasive pelvic exams that go against current medical guidelines, or that you shouldn't demand that your clients explain and justify  their sexuality to you. Ideally, most doctors would be doing these for all patients anyway, but unfortunately a lot of healthcare professionals can be kinda ignorant about how to interact with non-heterosexual patients or what actual recommendations in those cases are, so sometimes they need reminders.

 

It's especially important in mental healthcare, as asexuality is an important part of many people's lives that intersects in ways that will mostly come up during discussions about whatever issues they are actually seeking therapy for.

Anyway, questions like that are why I'm making this list. (This also isn't just an ace activist thing; we actually get a lot of questions from healthcare providers asking for resources exactly like these.)

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Then it's not really teaching/training medical professionals about how asexuals' bodies are different, but training them to be kind and respectful of ALL their patients.  Because some doctors, etc. are dismissive and patronizing to  young patients, to old patients, and various other categories of patients.  

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