In March, Sylvana M.went on TikTok to share a negative experience she had at a doctor’s office while back in her hometown in the Caribbean.

Sylvana, 22, who is attending college in Philadelphia, went to her gynecologist to get some general information on how to care for her sexual health as a gay person.

She was nervous. She wasn’t sure how her doctor would react to hearing her say she was gay.

Things didn’t go well. The doctor asked if she had a boyfriend. Sylvana responded, “Nope, I won’t ever have a boyfriend.”

Surprised, the doctor asked her what she meant by that. Sylvana responded, “Well, I’m not interested in men,” Then, Sylvana says the conversation took a turn. “That’s when she went to, ‘Oh, you’re probably confused. You’re in college, so you’re most likely experimenting.'” This content is imported from TikTok. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

The doctor then asked what kind of women she was attracted to, further suggesting that her identity was “confusion.”

“If you are attracted to masculine women, then you are most likely straight. If you’re attracted to feminine women, then you’re most likely bi, but highly likely that you’re just confused and are straight,” Sylvana recalls the doctor saying.

She wanted to bolt. Sylvana was so uncomfortable that she started agreeing with whatever the doctor was saying just to get out of the room. “You’re in a vulnerable place already when you’re at the gynecologist’s office,” she says. “I just wanted to get it over with and leave and not have to continue that conversation.”

Sylvana left without the information about sexual health that she was seeking. Instead, she felt invalidated.

Sylvana is just one of many LGBTQ people who don’t feel comfortable or even welcome in a medical setting, and the health implications of that are staggering. Around 70 percent of transgender or gender non-conforming people and 56 percent of lesbian, gay, or bisexual patients say they’ve experienced some type of discrimination in healthcare, found a survey by the Healthcare Equality Index. And that all-too-common discrimination could lead to LGBTQ people avoiding medical offices altogether.

How To Access LGBTQ-Friendly Healthcare

Devastating Health Consequences

In a 2017 survey by the Center for American Progress, the organization found that LGBTQ people were more likely to postpone both preventative and needed medical care to avoid experiencing discrimination. Nearly 24 percent of transgender respondents and 4.4 percent of cisgender lesbian, gay, and bisexual respondents also reported avoiding doctors’ offices that year. And those numbers increase for people of color: 10.3 percent of all respondents of color said they skipped all visits to a physician’s office.

The discomfort LGBTQ people face in medical offices isn’t only frustrating in real-time. It also has catastrophic long-term consequences. LGBTQ people are often at significantly higher risks of both physical and emotional conditions compared to heterosexual and cisgender individuals. As many as 30 percent of LGBTQ youth specifically experience mental health conditions, like depression and anxiety. They also have higher instances of suicide attempts and PTSD, finds a study in the American Journal of Public Health.

According to the American Heart Association, LGBTQ adults are at a higher risk for cardiovascular disease compared to cisgender heterosexual adults, likely due to unique stressors, including healthcare discrimination. They also have a heightened risk for substance abuse, according to the journal LGBT Health. And those are just a few of the disparities.

Built-In Barriers To Care

Katie Peterson, who is studying to be a doctor and is gay, says that often, the language used during a doctor’s visit isn’t LGBTQ+ friendly.

She can’t even count the number of times doctors have questioned how she could be “so sure” that she isn’t pregnant. “There’s just this expectation that everyone is straight and women sleep with men and men sleep with women,” Katie says. “It’s not a comfortable or safe-feeling space.”

Jessica Halem, who serves on the board of the Tegan and Sara Foundation, an organization advocating for the health, economic justice, and representation of LGBTQ girls and women, says that the anxiety LGBTQ people experience when trying to access medical care begins even before they even walk into a provider’s office. For many, it can be tough to even get health insurance coverage. In the United States, sexual minority women and men are twice as likely to be uninsured than their heterosexual counterparts, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal.

As a physician-to-be, Katie knows the importance of annual screenings. But at one point, she went without a primary care doctor for eight years. “It wasn’t worth feeling uncomfortable to go through the lottery of hoping I find a doctor that I like,” she says.

Creating A New Path Forward

Jasmyne Jackson, a second-year pediatric resident at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center, says that the answer isn’t solely identifying more doctors that are LGBTQ-friendly. Everyone, regardless of their sexual identity or gender expression, can play a role in making the healthcare space more inclusive. “It really is a holistic approach to both medical training, the hospital environment, as well as larger policy forces within the healthcare system,” she says. That means addressing everything from the training doctors receive in medical school to improving access to insurance.

Still, the health and safety of the LGBTQ community can’t wait, and sometimes 15 minutes in a doctor’s office could be life-changing, says Halem. “I live by this mantra which is that every time a queer and trans person goes to the doctor, it could be the day that their life changes forever for the better. That one visit could be the time that they finally get on PrEP [a daily pill that reduces the risk of infection before a possible HIV exposure] and talk about HIV, that they finally talk about gender and get on hormones, that they finally talk about their blood pressure and they’re going to get it under control.”

What To Do Before Heading Into The Doctor’s Office

You can’t fix the system alone. “It is the system’s job to change and adjust,” says Jackson. “People go into healthcare to heal, and so we need to start healing and stop hurting those in the LGBTQ community.”But there are some ways to increase the chance that a visit to the doctor’s office will help rather than harm and minimize your discomfort.