Gays often excluded from medical studies

[foxfeet]

Some research bars homosexuals without scientific reason, report claims

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Medical Writer

A small but significant portion of medical studies exclude gays from participating, sometimes without an apparent scientific reason, several cancer researchers say.

In a letter in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, three scientists from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia cite several dozen studies requiring a participant to be "in a reciprocal relationship with a person of the opposite sex."

There are legitimate scientific reasons for excluding gays from certain studies. Scientists would want only heterosexuals if they were studying how HIV spreads during male-female sex, for example.

But the Fox Chase folks found cases where the reason for excluding gays is not clear: tests of a drug for attention-deficit disorder, a treatment for erection problems after prostate cancer surgery and studies on sexual function related to diabetes, depression and benign enlargement of the prostate as men age.

Full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35917993/ns/health-cancer/

[izquierdista]

1. I could understand excluding lesbians....

...from studies of prostate enlargement.

[LeftHander]

2. :::snorf::::

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. i think all minorities are excluded from medical studies

[JackBeck]

4. Here's a great article from my agency's quarterly publication, Achieve:

http://www.thebody.com/content/art54916.html

While it's true that minority groups have been left out of clinical trials, there is also a lack of willingness to participate due to a mistrust with the medical community.

For Blacks and African-Americans, you can easily point to Tuskegee to understand why this mistrust exists. But you can go as far back as http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/479892_3">Dr. J. Marion Sims, the father of modern American gynecology, to get an even deeper sense of this mistrust.

Then there's the http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=31&compID=55">Puerto Rican Sterilization project, sanctioned by the US government, that dealt with population control.

These aren't conspiracy theories, but tragic abuses by our medical community on women and PoC. Fortunately, as a result, we now have informed consent, which was created as a direct result from these mistreatments.

The major challenge we now face is convincing these communities that they are protected from exploitation from the medical community. But because of these historical underpinnings, it's been difficult to get these communities involved.