Queering the doctor's office: An assessment of LGBTQ women's experiences in healthcare settings

Background/Purpose: Ample evidence supports the need for additional assessment of the health and access needs of the LGBTQ community, and specifically, those of sexual minority women. Particularly, research shows the importance of patients disclosing sexual orientation in healthcare settings to accurately gauge behavior risk. Thus, the Lesbian Community Care Project (LCCP), a program of Howard Brown Health Center, developed a community needs assessment to better understand the health experiences of the LGBTQ population in Chicago, Illinois.

Methods: Drawing upon past LGBTQ-specific needs assessments of other urban organizations and the expertise of the assessment team, LCCP developed a 32-item questionnaire broken into three sections: demographics, health and healthcare, and programming, which was disseminated city-wide specifically targeting LBTQ women.

Results: 152 respondents completed the survey; 92.1% were woman-identified and 92.76% identified as lesbian, bisexual or queer. Data revealed that 16.08% believe that health services in general are not LGBTQ-sensitive, and thus, 23% “never” and 35% “sometimes” discuss their sexual orientation with their primary care provider. 18.49% reported being treated inappropriately because of their sexual orientation, citing particularly negative experiences related to providers' heteronormative views on pregnancy, birth control, and sex; as well as misinformation regarding the need for LBTQ women to receive routine gynecological testing.

Conclusions/Implications: Despite overwhelming evidence and resources, many providers and staff of healthcare organizations still lack specific training and cultural competency when treating sexual minority women. This assessment suggests the need to establish standards of care to ensure appropriate and nondiscriminatory care of LGBTQ patients.