Gays, Lesbians Excluded From Some Medical Studies

"Our study indicates that it is more widespread than would have guessed." said Roland Dunbrack, Jr., co-author of the report, which appears in the March 18 issue of New England Journal of Medicine.

"It is an exclusion that in many cases can, in most cases, there needs to be used," said Dunbrack, an associate professor at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

Review boards that approve research, both local and federal, already keeps a close eye research, which exclude minority groups or for either gender, Dunbrack noted. He and his colleagues launched their research because they were curious about the limitations of study involving gays and lesbians.

"If you want to exclude a certain group, usually have a reason for it," he said, but there are no such restrictions on gays and lesbians.

Researchers have suspected that the issue of inclusion - and exclusion - of gays and lesbians do not come very much out of research into sexuality. And found that to be the case, at least for asthma research. For more than a thousand studies on asthma is that researchers, none had restrictions based on sexual orientation.

However, of 243 studies that included the words "young", "erectile dysfunction" or "hypoactive" (referring to low sex drive), 37 excluded non-heterosexuals in some way.

"Not that any study looked at should be rewritten," said Dunbrack, but there should be reasons given for exclusions, and 'do not know what the rational for these studies should be. "

Those most likely to collapse in the studies of same-sex relationships were sponsored by industry, multi-regional studies and phase 3 clinical trials (phase before drugs are usually submitted for FDA approval), the team was found.

James Beaudreau, education and policy director of the gay and lesbian Medical Association, said it was important to include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in medical research because some medical experience at different rates.

For example, studies suggest that lesbians may be more likely to develop breast cancer than other women. Also, he said, "the health effects of stress related to living with a stigmatized identity includes higher rates of depression, anxiety, suicide attempts, and substance abuse."

"Real danger is that gay and transgender people may respond differently to medical interventions, but we will never know if we do not collect information," said Beaudreau, whose organization represents medical professionals.

"We do not believe that is an unreasonable burden on researchers to ask questions about sexual orientation and gender identity," he said.