
Doctors with Disabilities: Why They’re ImportantThanks - SirLJ
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/upshot/doctors-with-disabilities-why-theyre-important.html
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Powerofmene
For example, women who have difficulty walking are much less likely to be
asked about contraception or receive cervical cancer screening, in part
because doctors assume they’re not sexually active.

Wow, these are doctors who went to medical school and are crystal clear on how
to have sex, right? The hard cold facts are that a very large percentage of
all individuals with disabilities are the victims of sexual assault and many
schools request girls be on birth control "just in case." People with
disabilities are curious and have hormones driving them crazy just as no
disabled individuals do.

I have worked for many years in this arena and I have a daughter with
disabilities. It was a fight to get my daughter the HPV shots but I won and
she received them. I also know that women I have worked with received
substandard GYN care and many received zero GYN care. When a severally
disabled bed ridden young woman with severe cognitive impairments in a state
run institution ended up pregnant everybody ignored it until they could not
longer do so. Then they simply asked how rather than who, when, etc.
Everything became about preventing the outcome in the future when my concern
was preventing the sex given her total inability to consent. Of course the
investigation produced no conclusive evidence...???? But the pregnancy was
pretty darn conclusive so clearly something happened.

Sadly there are far too few Drs to treat individuals with disabilities and far
to caregivers/conservators to fight for appropriate care for those society
still sees as third or fourth class citizens.

