Get Healthy!

MONDAY, May 13, 2024 (HealthDay news) -- Could being a lesbian or bisexual shorten your life? New research that analyzed decades of data on women suggests it might.

What's driving the trend? Researchers point to discrimination as the primary culprit.

While there is a large body of research looking at how LGBTQ people experience mental health issues and chronic disease at higher rate...

Too many closeted gay and bisexual men didn't receive treatment for infectious mpox during the recent global outbreak, a new report finds.

It wasn't necessarily because they feared being outed if they sought care, experts said. Instead, these men's separation from the wider LGBT community may have meant they had less information on treatments.

"I think the lesson here is that there ...

Stigma can take a toll on lesbian, gay and bisexual teens, leading to high rates of binge-eating disorders, researchers say.

Compared to their non-LGBTQ peers, lesbian, gay and bisexual teens are more than twice as likely to report binge eating, according to a new study.

Bullying, discrimination and stigma because of sexual orientation can be stressors that lead to poor self-esteem ...

In the United States, "conversion therapy"for LGBTQ people has been widely condemned by major medical associations. Not only that, nearly half of the country has now banned the practice for minors.

But a new review of 16 investigations across six nations suggests conversion therapy is hardly a thing of the past.

On average, nearly one of every 10 LGBTQ individuals around the world s...

Youth who are both LGBTQ+ and either Black or Hispanic and live in U.S. states that have discriminatory policies are more likely to have depression than their counterparts in states that are more affirming to gender and sexual identity, new research finds.

"This study provides scientific evidence to what many queer and trans people of color in the U.S. are experiencing day to day,"said s...

Meningococcal disease -- which includes meningitis -- appears to be on the rise among Americans infected with HIV, new research reveals.

Researchers stress that the risk to any one person remains exceedingly rare, regardless of their HIV status.

Each year between 2017 and 2021 HIV-positive patients accounted for five to 15 cases of the bacterial disease, which typically shows up as ...

Lesbians, gays and bisexuals are experiencing more mental health and substance use issues than their heterosexual peers, researchers say.

According to a new government report released Tuesday, this includes major depressive episodes, serious thoughts of suicide,...

U.S. health officials are bracing for the possibility that mpox could surge again this summer as cases mount in several states.

On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 21 more cases of mpox, with Illinois, New York and Maryland reporting the most new infections. Illi...

Public health officials are urging people at risk of contracting mpox, the virus previously called monkeypox, to get vaccinated.

They are concerned that a slowdown in infections since last summer may not continue.

"There's a very real risk of there being a surge in mpox cases over the next few months. Most likely, it won't be anywhere near as big as it was last year, and that is be...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday finalized the elimination of certain restrictions that prevented healthy gay and bisexual men from donating blood.

Instead of requiring men who have sex with men or the women who have sex with them to abstain for sexual contact for three months, the FDA has created an individual risk assessment for all donors.

These questions are m...

While the mpox outbreak has been waning since last summer, it hasn't disappeared yet.

Howard Brown Health, a LGBTQ-focused health clinic in Chicago, recently reported seeing an increase in mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) cases, with eight diagnosed since April 17, compared to only one in the previous three months.

Last week's case count was the highest in Chicago since early No...

In yet another sign of the stress that can haunt gay, lesbian and bisexual youth, a new study finds that compared with their straight peers, they are twice as likely to report trouble falling asleep or staying asleep.

Depression and family conflict may be contributing to sleep issues in young LGBTQ people, the researchers noted.

"Young people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexua...

Could a quick-dissolving pill placed in the rectum prove to be an effective and safe "on-demand"way to prevent HIV infection among sexually active men and women?

It might, new research indicates.

The experimental form of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is designed to be placed directly into either the rectum or the vagina. In the new study, conducted among 21 men and women, it deli...

About 44% of U.S. middle and high schools have student-run clubs that shine a light on issues that touch the lives of LGBTQ+ students.

And new research suggests that depression risk among LGBTQ+ students is considerably lower in those schools where such Gender-Sexuali...

Transgender youth in Utah are now blocked from receiving gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy after Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill Saturday that largely bans such care for youth.

Cox said that the ban was necessary until more research was done o...

Longstanding restrictions on blood donations from gay or bisexual men could soon shift towards a more nuanced policy, where such men are asked about sexual partners and practices instead, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday.

Specifically, gay men who are in monogamous relationships will no longer be required to abstain from sex for any period of time before donating to ...

U.S. Food & Drug Administration policies that have limited blood donations from men who have sex with men may soon ease.

At the moment, FDA policy does not allow blood donation from men who have had sex with other men in the past three months. That's already a shorter timeframe than in the past, when the agency required a one-year gap.

The agency is now considering switching to ques...

A new study that looks at suicide risk among U.S. teens who are lesbian, gay and bisexual finds they have disproportionately high rates of suicidal thoughts, planning and attempts compared to their heterosexual peers.

"The major message of this paper is that among a group of survivors of these types of violence, those who identify as a sexual minority are more likely to develop suicidal t...

Compared with heterosexual men, gay men are more than twice as likely to develop inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) when engaging in "high-risk"sexual behavior, new research shows.

The definition of high-risk behavior was having sexual contact with multiple partners or without a condom.

"To our knowledge, this is the first large population-based study that demonstrates a higher preval...

The drug tecovirimat appears to be safe and effective for treating the symptoms and skin lesions of monkeypox, a small study suggests.

Tecovirimat (TPOXX) is an antiviral drug for the treatment of smallpox. It works by limiting spread of the virus in the body. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has al...

A survey conducted among American gay and bisexual men in early August found about half saying they'd cut down on sexual activity -- including one-night stands and app-based hookups -- in response to the global monkeypox outbreak.

The survey, conducted online Aug. 5-15, was led by Kevin Delaney...

With monkeypox cases continuing to climb in the United States, federal health officials said Friday they have ordered another 2.5 million doses of monkeypox vaccine and boosted national testing capacity to respond to the outbreak.

The news comes not a moment too soon, as demand for the vaccine outstrips supply and clinics in some American cities run out of supplies almost as soon as they ...

The symptoms of patients with monkeypox in the United Kingdom differ from those in previous outbreaks of the virus, a new study shows.

It said there have been fewer reports of fever and tiredness while reports of skin lesions in the genital and anal areas have been more common.

Location of the lesions suggests transmission during intimate contact, and researchers called for more res...

Testing for HIV suffered a sharp setback during the first year of the pandemic, new government data shows.

The number of HIV tests funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and administered in health care settings dropped 43% between 2019 and 2020, the study showed. Tests administered in non-he...

Hate crime laws that protect gay, lesbian and transgender people may have an unexpected benefit: fewer teen suicide attempts, among kids of all sexual orientations.

That's the conclusion of a new study that looked at what happened in U.S. states that enacted hate crime laws with protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning individuals. It found that