When was the last time your GP asked you this? Sadly, this is an area that is often not openly discussed.
Sexual identity (who do you desire?) vs gender identity (do you identify as a man/woman/other?) is also commonly misunderstood and rarely talked about.
The Kinsey scale of sexual orientation ranges from 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual). Most of us are somewhere on this scale, and interestingly there are few individuals that identify as 0 or 6.
Statistics tell us that there are 15 million individuals worldwide who are transgender (they identify themselves in a different gender to that assigned to them at birth). That’s 1 in 500 people. It’s likely that the numbers would be much higher than this, if the stigma and discrimination did not exist.
At Haan, we recognise that in the LGBTQI+ community there is a much higher incidence of depression and anxiety (60%), as well as stigma and discrimination at school, work, and even in the medical community. We also know that there are too few services on the Gold Coast.
PrEP is ‘Pre exposure prophylaxis’, a whole new approach to HIV prevention. HIV transmission can be substantially reduced if HIV negative persons most at risk of acquiring HIV are offered PrEP to prevent becoming HIV positive.
It works by having an impact on the virus’ ability to establish itself in the body, and therefore lowers the possibility of an HIV negative person becoming HIV positive. This is different to PEP, which is given AFTER exposure to HIV to prevent the virus from establishing itself in the body.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has registered Truvada for PrEP in Australia, now indicated for the sexual prevention of HIV among HIV-negative people (as well as part of HIV treatment among HIV-positive people). Truvada is now available at a subsidized co-payment through Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), as of 1st April 2018.
We are here to offer support, guidance in sexual health, mental health, fertility issues and lifestyle issues. We also can help with advice regarding medication (including PrEP), hormones, surgery and counselling. You are not alone. We invite you to book an appointment with one of our doctors for a confidential non-judgmental chat.
