Welcome to Gay Men’s Health Australia, a website devoted to healthy lifestyle information, tips and tricks for gay men, bisexual men and other men who have sex with men.
This website will be frequently added to with topics covered including men’s health, mental health, sexual health, HIV prevention and many other topics.
I hope in time I will be able to create a strong resource for the gay community in Australia that is going to include listings of gay friendly doctors across Australia.
Gay Men’s Health Topics
Gay Male Sexual Health:
Due to the nature of gay sex, gay men will present with sexual health issues in different ways to their heterosexual counterparts. For this reason it’s important to have a good understanding of the different sexual health diseases as well as the best ways to ensure you are looking after your sexual health.
Examples of issues covered include:
- Sexual health screening
- Chlamydia
- Gonorrhoea
- Syphilis
- HIV & AIDS
- Genital warts
HIV Prevention:
As a gay doctor I see many patients who are worried and concerned about HIV and potential exposures to HIV. For this reason I felt it was important to cover topics such as:
- How HIV is transmitted
- How HIV is not transmitted
- Safe sex
- PrEP (Pre Exposure Prophylaxis ie daily Truvada tablets to prevent HIV infection)
- PEP (Post Exposure Prophylaxis, HIV treatment to reduce risk of infection if you’ve had a risk HIV exposure)
- Ways to enjoy sex without worry and stress based around HIV
Mental Health:
Research shows that within the gay community there are higher levels of anxiety, depression and even suicidal behaviours.
This may be a factor of growing up “different” but also external pressures such as being forced to conceal aspects of your life due to work or family pressures, external homophobia, isolation and even loneliness.
Over time I will be adding new topics to this area.
Finding A Gay Friendly Doctor:
One challenge man gay men find is getting access to a doctor in particular a GP who has a good understanding of men’s health and gay men’s health. I hope that the creation of a directory structure will enable men to find doctors who are educated as well as open, friendly and non discriminatory.
Regards
Dr George Forgan-Smith: Gay Men’s Health Doctor In Melbourne Australia