Homosexuality and medical science

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The relationship between homosexuality and medical science has a long and controversial history, covering many countries and stretching across a wide spectrum of specialities, from psychology to epistemology to genetics. This article seeks to provide a brief summary of this history and a deal with some of the issues regarding homosexuality and medical science.

1 History
- 1.1 HIV crisis
- 1.2 "Gay disease"
2 Issues
3 See also
4 External links
- 4.1 Resources For Lesbian & Gay Families
- 4.2 Medical & Scientific Organisations' Statements On Homosexuality

[edit] History

The real history of homosexuality and medical science begins with the European sexologist movement which eventually spawned modern psychology. For a detailed discussion of this please see the article 'Homosexuality and psychology'.

[edit] HIV crisis

When HIV infection first became widespread in the 1980s, baffled epidemiologists sometimes described the collective symptoms they were seeing as the 'gay disease' or 'gay cancer' because it appeared to be largely restricted to gay men. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named the syndrome Gay Related Immune Deficiency (GRID), a name which was later replaced with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) when it was discovered that the disease could infect individuals regardless of their sexual orientation.

[edit] "Gay disease"

Various attempts have been made to define gay-only or gay-specific diseases, particularly during the 1970s. "Gay bowel syndrome" was a term first used in 1976, prior to the discovery of AIDS, to describe a series of parasitic disorders caused by oral/anal sexual contact. The term was abandoned by the medical community in the 1980s. The medical problems attributed to "gay bowel syndrome" were

not specific to people of a specific sexual orientation
not confined to the bowel
not the medical definition of a syndrome

Similarly, a 2003 cluster of cases of MRSA-related skin infection found in gay men, schools, and prisons was initially labeled in press reports as a gay disease. In fact, there is no correlation between sexual orientation and MRSA infection or colonization.

The term "gay disease" in reference to AIDS is mostly used by religious objectors to same-sex relationships, who feel that lesbians and gay men are violating their religious doctrines and deserve punishment or divine retribution.

[edit] Issues

[edit] Methods Of Reproduction Used By Same-Sex Couples

The Main Procedures Used Are:

Some men and women in homosexual relationships opt to create families with children. Methods have been devised to allow them to have biological children. Some couples elect to have a close relative (sometimes a sister), good friend, or contract an individual to either obtain an egg for a surrogate or give birth through in vitro fertilization. In the cases of a good friend or a contracted entity the child is only biologically related to one partner. However in the cases of a blood relative such as a sister of one partner who donates an egg that is fertilized with the other partner's sperm and placed into a surrogate the child is biologically related to both partners. Women in same-sex relationships can produce biological children through similar methods. Some elect to have one partner donate an egg which is fertilized with a blood relative of the other partner, sometimes a brother. The egg is then placed into the partner who did not donate the egg. In essence one partner gives birth to her partner's and sometimes brother's biological child. These procedures can be costly, and many same-sex couples choose adoption instead. However adoption does not produce a child that is biologically related in any manner.

[edit] Healthcare discrimination against homosexuals

Medical conditions can strike anyone regardless of their sexual orientation, although the risks of contracting AIDS and other diseases or conditions is dramatically increased for those who engage in high risk sexual activities such as anal sex, often observed as a gay male activity.

Some health related discrimination concerns cited by homosexuals are linked to the non-existence of same-sex marriage: hospital visitation issues, end-of-life decision making and lack of health insurance, typically given only to legal spouses and family members.

[edit] Genetics

The advent of modern genetic science has seen revived interest in the argument of nature versus nurture as a cause of sexual orientation as well as advances in the treatment of AIDS and other diseases. The precise ramifications of this and modern biotechnology are not yet apparent.

However some scientific studies have pointed to findings that gay men's brain anatomy is similar to heterosexual women and different from their heterosexual male counterparts. (This does not necessarily form a link between genetics and homosexuality, but merely correlates behavior with differences in the structure of the brain. The differences in the brains of homosexual males as compared with heterosexual males may be driven by genetics, environment, or both.) Other findings include that fingerprints of gay men match closely with those of heterosexual women, and fingerprints are formed 16 weeks after conception within the womb which could point to homosexuality being determined by genetic factors. In identical twins, researchers have also found that if one self-identifies as a gay man or lesbian the chance of the other being gay is greatly increased at 50%. Scientific inquiry into the reasons for homosexuality is still an emerging field of study, and more current research is constantly changing the way science views homosexuality.

It is worth noting that many medical and scientific organisations do believe it is impossible to change a person's sexual orientation and this is displayed in a statement by American Academy of Pediatrics, American Counseling Association, American Association of School Administrators, American Federation of Teachers, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, American School Health Association, Interfaith Alliance Foundation, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Social Workers, and National Education Association.

[edit] Women

Homosexual women are less at risk of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases than any other group including heterosexuals. In the case of certain types of cancer, though, this is not true. Most likely due to barriers to care, both social and psychological, lesbians are less likely to receive regular screening examinations^{[citation needed]}, and therefore more likely to develop advanced cases of cervical cancer or breast cancer. The general tendency among lesbians never to have been pregnant also increases the risk for both diseases. In recent years, however, many lesbian couples are choosing to have in vitro fertilization and become pregnant to raise families. Some couples even have one partner donate an egg, which a medical doctor then fertilizes and places within the other partner (see Surrogacy). Many lesbians now prefer this method because they feel it to be more intimate when one partner gives birth to the other's biological child.

See Homosexuality, Genetics and sexual orientation and Sexual orientation for more information.