You’re back again, so what I’m saying is falling on deaf ears.” When I said I understood, her response was: “You clearly don’t. She then proceeded to tell me that I shouldn’t be coming in to get tested this often, and that I needed to wear condoms every single time I had sex with a partner. I explained that I had been exposed to syphilis, and my doctor wasn’t available for another week, so I wanted to get tested. “You were in here two months ago for STI related issues,” she said. The straight, female doctor not only spoke to me pedantically like a toddler, but thought the best approach to discussing my sexual health was to repeatedly shame me. There’s an urgent care near my apartment that I usually try to avoid, but I wanted to get treated ASAP. Immediately, I knew the culprit: gonorrhea. I quietly cried on the bus ride home.Ībout six weeks ago, I woke up with a burning sensation and green discharge. I had spent weeks trying to get insurance after moving to New York and had been looking forward to this doctor’s appointment to start taking control of my sexual health.
He refused to prescribe me PrEP because he “fundamentally opposed” the drug after learning about it during our conversation. I ultimately left the office without a prescription.
I don’t choose who I fall in love with, and I have zero desire to deny my attraction to men just to decrease my likelihood of acquiring HIV. Second, that’s not how bisexuality works. I likely passed multiple ads promoting Truvada on the bus ride over to his practice. His office was located in the heart of downtown Brooklyn. Mind you, this wasn’t a doctor from the middle of nowhere. I, a patient, needed to explain its purpose and myriad of benefits.
#Gay men sex with doctors professional
It’s horrifying to think that in 2017, this healthcare professional had never learned about the commonly prescribed antiretroviral.
There was nothing I could say.įor one, he should have absolutely known what PrEP is as a primary care physician. “If you settled down with a nice woman, you wouldn’t need to take Truvada,” the doctor said to me, shortly after acknowledging he had never heard of PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) prior to my office visit.