Each week HuffPost Gay Voices, in a partnership with blogger Scout, LGBT HealthLink and researcher Susana Fajardo, brings you a round up of some of the biggest LGBT wellness stories from the past seven days. For more LGBT Wellness visit our page dedicated to the topic here.
1
General Smoking Cessation Messages Don’t Work for Us
Courtesy of LGBT HealthLink
A new study of HIV-positive gay male smokers found that generalized smoking cessation messages were not very effective. Good thing CDC is spreading their tailored #Tips From Former Smokers campaign ads widely across LGBT media now. Have you spotted the gay HIV+ ad yet in your local queer newspaper? Get free posters and visuals of these ads at LGBT HealthLink.
2
Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy Study Shows Us What’s Valuable
Shutterstock / Andrey_Popov
A new study of conversion therapy found that while it wasn’t effective, it also had some unexpected benefits. People felt connected to others through the process and ended up at a point of self-acceptance. It looks like we need the love and connection but without the guilt and shame. Wait, so that’s conversion therapy without the conversion part? Which would mean maybe our queer youth need therapy. Oh, brilliant idea.
3
Rare Study Of LGB Mortality Yields Suicide, HIV, & Cancer Insights
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This week we get interesting insights into our health from one of the first LGB (no T) mortality studies. Researchers found adult women who had sex with women are at higher risk of suicide than other women; interestingly, adult men who had sex with men had no difference in suicide or HIV mortality than others. Also unexpectedly, women who had sex with women had no higher breast cancer mortality than others. We caution there will need to be many studies on mortality to draw conclusions -- it would be hard to not have higher cancer rates considering our higher smoking rates, so please keep getting regular cancer screenings.
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4
Fed Employee Health Plans Not Requiring Trans Coverage
MARTIN BUREAU via Getty Images
Buzzfeed reports 2016 federal employee health plans are strongly encouraged to provide information on their trans related coverage but not required to cover transition related care. That said, the rule against providing such care was lifted last July and at least one plan in every state does cover hormones, therapy and surgery. So the needle of trans health care continues to move rapidly in the right direction.
5
Alcohol, Drugs, & Mental Health Issues Among Lesbian & Bi Women
Shutterstock / Roman Sigaev
New research looked at co-occurring disorders among women with alcohol use problems. They found lesbian and bi women were over two times more likely than other women to also experience drug use problems and over 50% more likely to also experience mental health problems.
6
Medical Stigma Hurts Bi & Gay Black Men
Getty Images
New research found that 29% of bi and gay black men reported racial or sexual orientation stigma from healthcare providers and 48% said they mistrusted providers. The more stigma, the less frequently they went to appointments. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: welcoming healthcare needs to be a priority.
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7
Trans Man Poised to Make History As Cover Model for Men’s Health
Courtesy of Aydian Dowling
An amazing trans guy named Aydian might win Men’s Health’s Ultimate Guy contest, landing him a historic spot on the cover of the magazine. Nothing like rocketing us right past health problems into the sexy zone in one fell swoop. And Aydian's not just another pretty boy, he also helped start a trans health channel on YouTube called Beefheads Fitness.
8
Only 9% of Academic Medical Practices Can Connect Patients to LGBT Competent Physicians
Getty Images/OJO Images RF
When researchers surveyed all 138 academic medical practices across the country, they found only 9% could connect LGBT patients with LGBT competent physicians and 52% of physicians had no LGBT training whatsoever. On a better note, 80% of programs were interested in developing better practices to serve LGBT patients.
9
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