As you begin accepting the fact that gay life is part of YOUR life, there are a lot of different questions that come up. However one of the top questions that you might be wondering right now is simple: who needs to know? If you’re not comfortable with coming out to everyone, that’s fine. In time, you’ll be more comfortable. You can come out and stand proud as a gay teen. But there are some people that you will need to come out to first, in order to protect your health.
One of the top people that you need to talk with before anyone else would definitely have to be a doctor. Your doctor will need to know about your sexual orientation for many reasons. Let’s cover a few of those reasons.
The biggest thing that you have to realize is that your doctor cannot give you proper health care if they don’t know anything about your lifestyle. The advice that they give someone that isn’t gay may be different than what they give for you. They may be interested in running more tests if you’re sexually active, because STDs can and still do happen in the gay community. You want to always make sure that you’re protected when you engage in sexual activity.
The doctor does need to know, and they also need to know how many partners you’ve had in the past, as well as any partner or partners that you’re having right now. These aren’t questions that are meant to embarrass you in any way shape or form.
You have to think about it from their perspective. The doctor has a job to do, and that job is to protect your health. To be honest, you are probably not the only gay teen that they know about.
If you haven’t come out to your parents, you don’t have to worry about the doctor telling your parents that you’re gay. As long as you are engaging in sexual activity with people your own age (to avoid any type of conflict with someone that is an adult when you’re not), you will not have to worry about your privacy being violated.
What is said between you and your doctor is actually protected, and your doctor can get in trouble for saying anything to anyone — including your parents. If it’s an issue, you may want to discuss this with your doctor as well. They will go out of their way to make sure that your parents don’t harm you just because they find out something different about you.
Everyone tends to come out in their own time. But coming out to your doctor is something that you need to do for your health — nothing more and nothing less than that!
