Health

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Some of Us Weren’t ‘Fixed,’ and the Results Were Fantastic

Humans often want to fix things about ourselves that aren’t broken. From foot-binding to plain old circumcision, our species has historically been obsessed with altering our bodies — which I can’t help but think about today as it’s Intersex Awareness Day. The observance commemorates the first protest by intersex people — those of us born with atypical sex characteristics — against the practice of subjecting intersex infants and minors to cosmetic, sex trait-altering medical procedures, on October 26, 1996. The impetus for fixing is so prevalent regarding the intersex population that it’s often come to define us, via statements such […]

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Anal Sex Condoms to Be Sold Exclusively at Walmart

ONE, a condom and lubricant company, is distributing the first and only condoms approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in anal sex. After the approval, ONE partnered with Walmart on new packaging to highlight the FDA clearance. Walmart stores in the U.S. will exclusively carry the ONE Backdoor pack, a condom kit that is a “butt stuff approved” sampler of the different styles available from ONE. The pack will feature products like the ONE Vanish, which is 25 percent thinner than the standard ONE condom. It works best with the ONE Move lube, according to the company. […]

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Data Emerges Identifying Alarming Intersection of Monkeypox (MPV), HIV, and Homelessness

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While monkeypox (MPV) cases are declining nationally, health officials are learning new details about who’s at greater risk and why. It’s shining urgent new light on known challenges to health and well-being and how they’re not only a risk to a person but to public health overall. Alarming data has emerged linking severe cases of MPV in people living with untreated HIV who are also experiencing homelessness. In a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), outlined in an early release of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) on October 26, 82% of study participants with severe MPV were also people […]

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Florida medical board votes to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors

After five hours of tense testimony and protests, the Florida Board of Medicine voted Friday to start drafting a rule that would bar all minors in the state from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgeries as treatment for gender dysphoria. Florida’s medical board is the first in the country to pursue such a rule, but Florida is among a wave of states where officials have attempted to restrict gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. By the end of Friday’s five-hour meeting, protesters began yelling “Shame!” at the board members, and some of them staged a “die-in” in the lobby […]

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New monkeypox cases have declined by 85% since August peak. Here’s why.

Since a peak in August, the number of reported daily cases of the monkeypox virus has declined 85%. That’s the latest seven-day average data from the Centers for Disease Control, indicating a drop from 443 reported cases at the height of the outbreak on August 6, to 60 cases reported on October 12. As of yesterday, 27,022 cases of the monkeypox virus have been reported in the U.S. Experts attribute the drop to a variety of factors. The monkeypox vaccine, with an 85% efficacy rate, helped slow the virus down. Men who have sex with men reduced their partners following […]

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Life after monkeypox: Men describe an uncertain road to recovery

During the four months of the monkeypox outbreak, health care providers, researchers and an anxious public have scrambled to determine how the virus transmits, how to prevent it and how the infection plays out in the body. Little attention has been paid to what comes after the infection clears. Following recovery from this skin lesion–causing virus, people often find themselves waiting anxiously over the course of months to see whether monkeypox will leave them with permanent scarring. And in interviews with more than a dozen people who have had the virus and as many health care providers and researchers, NBC […]

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Men with HIV and STIs may be at greater risk for monkeypox

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A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that monkeypox disproportionately affects people with HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The study looked at HIV and STI rates among 1,969 people with monkeypox in eight U.S. jurisdictions. Of that sample, 38 percent of people with monkeypox had also contracted HIV in the last year. About 41 percent of people with monkeypox also had an STI in the preceding year. About 61 percent of the sample had contracted either an STI or HIV in the previous year. Researchers said this correlation doesn’t necessarily mean that […]

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‘Out of control’ STD situation prompts call for changes

Sharply rising cases of some sexually transmitted diseases — including a 26% rise in new syphilis infections reported last year — are prompting U.S. health officials to call for new prevention and treatment efforts. “It is imperative that we … work to rebuild, innovate, and expand (STD) prevention in the U.S.,” said Dr. Leandro Mena of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a speech Monday at a medical conference on sexually transmitted diseases. Infections rates for some STDs, including gonorrhea and syphilis, have been rising for years. Last year the rate of syphilis cases reached its highest […]

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Black gay community concerned monkeypox response is inadequate

In July, a 35-year-old Black man from the Washington, D.C. area went from experiencing Covid-like symptoms to watching his body be overtaken by the aggravating, blistering boils of monkeypox. And yet, as he endured the agony and uncertainty that came with the disease, he said he had other, more pressing concerns.  The man, who asked to remain anonymous because of concerns related to the stigma associated with the disease, said he was alarmed by how difficult it was to find information on monkeypox and his doctor’s seeming dismissal of his concerns about his symptoms.  He said his case is an […]

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How monkeypox spoiled gay men’s plans for an invincible summer

For many gay and bisexual men, the sprawling and chaotic monkeypox outbreak has upended a summer that was supposed to be a well-earned opportunity — following the peak of the Covid crisis — to finally have some fun and revel with their gay brothers without the threat of viral infection hanging over them.  Soon after Memorial Day, however, these men, as well as transgender individuals and other queer people — GBTQ for short, because lesbians’ monkeypox risk is remote — were met head-on with harrowing reports about monkeypox’s often devastating and disfiguring effects on the body. Next came anger and frustration over […]

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