Posted on 08/09/2013 11:34:32 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The patient, who is gay, doesn't have a problem with his sexual orientation listed on his medical chart, but does take issue with it being labeled a "chronic condition"
A patient said a Southern California doctor diagnosed him with "Homosexual behavior" during his first visit to the office for a check-up.
Earlier this year, Matthew Moore started seeing a new doctor who suggested he undergo a complete physical. The tests revealed he was B-12 deficient, and had high blood pressure and high cholesterol -- conditions that he called "normal for me."
When Moore, who is openly gay, went back to the Manhattan Beach office to discuss the findings, the nurse gave him the results of his physical.
Among other diagnoses, the doctor listed "Homosexual behavior (302.0)," according to medical records obtained by NBC4. "Homosexual behavior" was also listed as a chronic condition on Moore's patient plan.
"When I look up code 302.0 and its sexual deviancy or mental illness, and that code has been removed or suggested heavily not to be used since 1973," Moore said.
"My jaw was on the floor. At first, I kind of laughed, I thought, 'Here's another way that gay people are lessened and made to feel less-than,' and then as I thought about it and as I dealt with it, it angered me," Moore said.
He later returned to the office, at the suggestion of an attorney and friends, to let the doctor explain her decision. He said when asked, the doctor defended her position.
"I was dumbfounded," Moore said.
Asked how one could treat homosexuality, the doctor said that "is still up to debate" and that the sexual orientation is "still being thought of as a disease," Moore said.
Moore said he does not take issue with his sexual orientation noted on his medical chart, but he does have a problem with it listed under chronic conditions.
"Government tells us, oftentimes, that we're not equal," Moore said. "Many churches tell us that we're sinners, and now here's a medical professional telling us that we are sick. And it's gotta stop."
Unsatisfied with his doctor's response, Moore wrote a letter to the Torrance Memorial Physician Network and received an apologetic note in return, pictured at right with personal information redacted.
Moore asked for and received his $30 copay back.
"We fully appreciate your frustration and anger related to your experience and are committed to ensuring that such events are not repeated," Heidi Assigal, senior director of Torrance Health Association, Inc., wrote, in part.
"We would like to unequivocally state that the Torrance Memorial Physician Network does not view homosexuality as a disease or a chronic condition and we do not endorse or approve of the use of Code 302.0 as a diagnosis for homosexuality."
Moore said he does not plan to file a lawsuit against the doctor, who he asked remain anonymous to protect her reputation. He said he was inspired to tell his story to let others know that if something like this happens, "you have to speak up."
"If I was a 14-year-old in a small town in Indiana, where I'm from, and I had a doctor tell me or my parents that I was sick because they thought I was gay, it would've been very damaging," he said.
Discounting any resultant injuries due to the sexual activity of homosexuals, if the body of a man who had experienced exclusive same-sex attraction his whole life were brought in to be autopsied for classification, there would be no possible way to know if he were a homosexual. None at all. Do all of the testing needed, sparing no expense, all the way up to the most sophisticated DNA analysis, and you would still have zilch.
In other words he diagnosed him with a full blown case of AIDS.
Exactly. When will we see a move to “Find a cure”?
What gave it away?
Was the guy showing up every week for a prostate exam?
OK, now my co-workers in the next cubilce are gonna wonder hat I’m LMAO for.
Thanks!
Here's the diagnosis.
What's the Rx?
Unfortunatly I have to see several doctors on a regular basis, 3 to 4 times per year. at the oncology clinic I go to on every trip for the last year I’m aked about tobacco and alcohol in detail, frequency, amount, when quit. They have had this info since my first visit 3 years ago and nothing has changed. Wednesday I asked why they didn’t ask about other risky behaviors that also ran up health cost. The nurse agreed that there are other behaviors that increase health risk but also agreed that it would be politically incorrect to mention them and that certainly no healthcare would be denied because of them.
the problem is making medical opinions part of the law - for doctors to follow - in the first place,
if handled differently altogether, as part of the right of medical practicioners to disagree in their opinions on medicine and healthcare (instead of the present cartels of professional orthodoxy we have today), then mo matter what that medical opinion is, the law, and legitimate medical practice, would be mute as to if it is “right” or “wrong” and thus NOT enforceable professionally or legally; in which case the “gay” man could chose to go somewhere else, as he has done, but there would be no “case” to be made in any sense;
similarly, a couple who brought their kid to a doctor looking for help to treat the kid because the kid said they were gay, could chose to refuse to do anything, giving the opinion that nothing was wrong with the kid, and
the parents would look for a different doctor
because of the law? no; because medical orthodoxy is no better than orthodoxy in science; there is always room
and reason for other opinions, and for doctors being
free to offer them and people free to chose them, or not
its called Liberty as opposed to government
If only our times were so enlightened...
A man goes to his doctor for a prostate exam.
After dropping trou, he leans forward as the doctor braces himself with his left hand on the man’s left shoulder. Then as he begins the exam, the man lets out an “Umph!”
Then, after several seconds of prodding around, the doctor says, “Aw-oh.” “What do you mean?,” the man asks.
Well, “I’ve got some bad news and some good news,” says the doctor. “The bad news is that you are totally homosexual.”
“Oh, my word!”, says the man, “But what’s the good news?”
“I am too!”, says the doctor, putting his right hand on the man’s right shoulder.
302.0 Ego-dystonic sexual orientation Ego-dystonic lesbianism Sexual orientation conflict disorder
I would think it would be important to know a patient’s sexual history of which proclivities are a big part. I have been asked by a doctor if I were sexually active.
Personally I am anticlivities.
Why is this called adverse stereotyping? Sexually active gay men have observable traits as a group mean or average, which of course would not show up in every individual, because a bell curve always has outliers on one side and the other.
The "average" gay male trait are medically relevant, because they include a higher rate of infections from a mixture of oral, anal, and genitourinary bacteria, and a speedier impact on epidemic disease outbreaks because of sexual promiscuity.
If you´re a virgin homosexual, I tip my hat, none of this applies to you.
If you´re a monogamous homosexual whose only lifetime sexual partner is likewise strictly monogamous, peace be with you, none of this applies to you, either.
But if your level of oral-anal-genital behavior and your number of sexual partners is anywhere near the "average" for gay males, then this applies to you in a way that is major, damaging, and personal.
Gay health advocates necessarily face up to the fact that the gay population is over-sick and underserved. How would the researches and the healthcare number-crunchers even be able to tabulate the healthcare needs for the LGBT community, if they can´t even put the relevant information on the chart?
Pipe down and be grateful somebody is keeping an eye on your risk factors.Some day you may owe this person your life.
Because it reminds them that they aren't normal.
Good post, btw.
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That could be the next code symbol after that silly equal sign.
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