The well attended ‘Go West: Life, Sex and Health in WA’ seminar held this month reviewed preliminary survey results from the WA Centre for Health Promotion Research (WACHPR) on three separate surveys dealing with the health of diverse sexuality and gender groups.
Gay Men’s Survey
Dr Graham Brown presented results of the 2006 gay men’s survey. He reported on some of the social changes that have seen more gay men accessing ‘mainstream’ venues and the diversification of their peer groups. ‘This has implications for how health promotion engages with gay men.’
‘The research showed there was an increasing need to investigate other ways of conducting health promotion through less gay focused venues, informal networks, and continue the development of internet-based outreach,’ he said.
The increases in knowledge, trends in sexual health testing, and continued high levels of safe sex indicate good outcomes for recent health promotion campaigns and the community response to HIV. However, as with elsewhere in Australia, there continues to be a slow but steady increase in potentially unsafe sexual practices with casual partners.
As he told OUTinPerth, ‘I feel there is a real momentum at a state and national level… the time is right to be for looking at support for broader health issues concerning gay men in addition to HIV.’
Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Survey
Healthway funding enabled the completion of the first large scale study of WA lesbian and bisexual women WA. Ms Jude Comfort presented preliminary results from this comprehensive health survey of 917 women.
‘Our survey shows that there are certain health issues where lesbian and bisexual women’s health is compromised by health behaviours,’ Ms Comfort said. ‘For example lesbian and bisexual women are more likely to smoke, with 28% reporting as smokers compared with the national figure of 19% prevalence for women… Other areas of concern include body weight, with a fifth of women being overweight and almost a quarter in the obese category. Physical activity levels were also lower. These are risk factors for a range of chronic diseases,’ she said.
Transsexual, Transgender and Intersex Health Survey
Zoe Hyde presented a thought provoking overview of the potential health challenges faced by WA’s trans and intersex community. This study, the first of its kind in Western Australia, provides a more complete picture of trans and intersex health. Notable findings include the high rate of smoking amongst women (double that of the general population), which, due to the interaction with hormone use, dramatically increases the risk of deep vein thrombosis, heart attack and stroke.
Amongst trans men who had not undergone a hysterectomy, Pap-smear participation was roughly half that of the general population, indicating an increased risk of cervical cancer. Experiences of harassment and violence for trans and intersex people were common, with implications for mental health. Rates of depression and anxiety disorders were more than double that found in the general population. These findings indicate an urgent need for interventions focused specifically on these groups.
Access to Health Services
Both the women’s and the trans/intersex survey explored issues regarding access to health services. ‘It is worrying that 7% of lesbian and bisexual women said they felt uncomfortable accessing a GP and 13% said they had not visited a GP,’ said Ms Comfort. ‘Feeling uncomfortable about accessing health providers could mean that these women are unlikely to be proactive in seeking health care and probably indicates a level of homophobia within certain health settings.’
Ms Hyde also picked up on this point reporting that 13% of the trans/intersex sample had experienced discrimination by a GP and 18% in a hospital setting. Some participants resorted to self-medicating, obtaining hormones from overseas or via the Internet. ‘This is of great concern, because hormone use can result in serious illness,’ said Ms Hyde.
‘Whilst the needs of trans and intersexed people sometimes overlap with those of the gay, lesbian and bisexual community, trans and intersexed people also have some unique concerns. There is a need for specific trans and intersex programs, rather than GLBT “umbrella†programs that attempt to service everyone,’ Ms Hyde told OUTinPerth
‘There are many changes occurring within these communities and health promotion and health services need to engage and respond to these new challenges,’ said Dr Brown.
