Hey, everyone! I hope you're staying safe and finding new hobbies. If you need any advice or someone to talk to my DMs are open! #WomenCrushingItWednesday is back with a post that was meant for LGBTQ+ Health Awareness Week: March 23-29 (whoops!), but it got pushed to today due to pandemic life adjustments. But it's here! Today! And I'm so happy I got to interview Sabina. I have been watching her page since she was thecurlypremed and now she's thecurlymed. Sabina is a first-year medical student at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is a pre-med mentor, member of the Medical Student Pride Alliance National Leadership Team, and LGBT Health Advocate. I'm excited to bring you her post! If you have any questions, be sure to reach out to either me (@blackgirlmedicine) or Sabina (@thecurlymed) through Instagram. Links to my other social media can be found at the bottom of the page. Here's Sabina's post!
TheCurlyMed LGBT Health
Hello! Super honored to have been asked to write a guest post for Taylor’s blog, Black Girl Medicine. Taylor has been incredibly patient with me given that she asked me to write this back in October 2019 (oops!). At any rate, I’m here, and I’m excited to be a part of the blog! Taylor asked me to share with you all the reasons behind I’m passionate about medicine and LGBTQ+ health. So, here it goes:
My passion for medicine originated long before I even knew about the concept and importance of LGBTQ+ health. I first expressed interest in being a doctor when I was a kid, around 5-years-old. My parents shared stories with me about how doctors saved my siblings’ lives when they were newborns (one with a tumor on his kidney, other with fluids in his lungs). Being the naturally curious person I am, I remember being interested to learn more about the body and it’s intricacies. Neither of my parents are in medicine, but they supported by interests by purchasing books for me to read. From there I was pretty much sold – I knew I was going to be a doctor. I learned all the bones in the body shortly after with the help of my dad and read everything I could about why the body does what it does (or at least read what I could understand as a kid haha). As I grew older and progressed through school, ‘my why’ for medicine evolved from being just about learning more about the body to wanting to help people to understanding and wanting to contribute to the profound impact that having access to health and healthcare has on individuals and communities. The latter is part of the reason I decided to pursue my Master of Public Health.
The other part is intricately tied to one of my biggest reasons for wanting to be a doctor in addition to those above listed. While I was home over break during college, I usually took care of the normal things like getting your teeth cleaned and going to your annual doctor appointments. I made an appointment with a new doctor because I was on new insurance, so I didn’t know what to expect when meeting her. I’d heard stories of discrimination in doctors’ offices, but I didn’t anticipate it would happen to me. After revealing my sexuality to my physician, I noticed their demeanor change abruptly from pleasant and friendly to confused and uncomfortable. I approached our conversation hesitantly thereafter and felt anxious discussing details of my life about which I was not convinced they were capable of understanding. I switched doctors, only to experience a similar reaction from other physicians. Unsatisfied and disappointed, I decided to make a change. Fueled by my past and by conversations with other people who identify within the LGBTQ+ community, I knew that my mission as a future doctor was going to be to contribute meaningfully to conversations about healthcare reform for underserved and underrepresented people like sexual and gender minority patients.
Student doctors aren’t currently adequately trained in medical school to care for LGBTQ+ patients. Cultural competency and sensitivity training are lacking and health disparity information is often absent from the curricula. I’m working towards being a doctor to improve the type of care that my future sexual and gender minority patients receive both inside clinical spaces and outside in their communities. My goal is to help improve medical education so that physicians are better prepared to care for their LGBTQ+ patients and to help improve healthcare access so that patients feel comfortable and safe seeking care.
This week is LGBTQ+ Health Awareness Week. I and others in the field are working hard to raise awareness about this important topic in medical education and public health spaces to ensure the wellbeing of our community. I could go into the details and nitty-gritty facts regarding the many unfortunate disparities that impact sexual and gender minority patients every day but that would be a much longer post than this. For now, I’ll drop some resources for you to read through if you’re interested in learning more about LGBTQ+ Health:
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions about LGBTQ+ Health, medical school, overcoming low GPAs, really anything!
Email: TheCurlyMed@gmail.com
Insta: @TheCurlyMed
Twitter: @SabinaSpigner
Thanks so much for sharing, Sabina! I am so happy you agreed to be a guest writer! Check out her social media for more awesomeness. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and remember,
Thanks for visiting my blog! Be sure to check out my other posts. There is more to come soon! Until then be kind and remember tomorrow depends on what you do today. Hope you enjoyed reading! — Taylor ❤