‘Patient of Homosexuality’, a gynecologist’s shock diagnosis of a 19-year-old Spanish woman

“Sick of Homosexuality”. This is the shock diagnosis of some Spanish doctors for a 19-year-old girl. The diagnosis appeared in a medical report prepared by a gynecologist at the Reina Sofia General Hospital in Murcia, southern Spain. The victim was a 19-year-old patient who went to the hospital because she suffers from menorrhagia, a menstrual disorder that shortens the periods between menstruation.

mother’s complaint

The mother, identified by the newspaper El Diario as Santi, filed an official complaint with the Murcia Health System against the doctor who described her daughter’s sexual activity as a disease and requested that this information be removed due to «annoying». The complaint was also joined by Gaactyco, the Cartagena LGBTI collective, to which the victim first turned to understand what actions he could take. The young woman left the medical consultation crying, as she was “asked if she could be included in the report that she was a lesbian.” Santi, a health worker, told El Diario that he learned from colleagues that the doctor was not new to such statements. Letters from Galactyco have been sent to the Ministry of Health requesting immediate correction and apology to the patient, as well as the enforcement of Spanish law on social equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.

LGBTI associations reaction

«It was 1990 when the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses, but 31 years later, in the Murcia health system, some professionals continue to consider sexual orientation a disease”, denouncing the Lgbti collective. Galactyco assures us that there are many cases of degrading treatment reported to our association because of sexual orientation or gender.We consider it worrisome, unacceptable and unlikely that the professionals on whom the appropriate treatment for our health depends today are ignorant of the reality of homosexuality.». The Health Authority of Murcia promised this «All necessary measures will be taken to obtain a detailed knowledge of the facts and the consequent adoption of appropriate measures».