What do you answer at the County Clinic when they asked you have you paid or been paid for sex?

[+ JEC]

Everytime I go to the county clinic for STD check up, they asked a bunch of questions... some about your housing situation, domestic violence, etc. And one of them is: Have you ever paid or been paid for sex? I always say no... Just wondering what others answer...

The answer is always no. None of your business. Nothing good can come from saying yes.

[+ Topseed]

The free clinic I test at asks this.

 

The answers to both questions are “Yes”.

 

And then I lie.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

While I haven't been to a county clinic, when my gp asks me about my sexual habits, I don't lie. I lay it all out.

 

He's there to keep me healthy, not to judge me: If he did, I'd just find a new gp.

 

The more honest I am about my sexual history, the better he can gameplan.

[+ keroscenefire]

While I haven't been to a county clinic, when my gp asks me about my sexual habits, I don't lie. I lay it all out.

 

He's there to keep me healthy, not to judge me: If he did, I'd just find a new gp.

 

The more honest I am about my sexual history, the better he can gameplan.

 

I agree! With my GP I am honest too though that specific question has never come up for me. There is a nurse that handled the PrEp and I am honest with her about my sexual history too.

[+ nycman]

Everytime I go to the county clinic for STD check up, .....And one of them is: Have you ever paid or been paid for sex? I always say no.

The free clinic I test at asks this.

The answers to both questions are “Yes”.

And then I lie.

While I haven't been to a county clinic, when my gp asks me about my sexual habits, I don't lie. I lay it all out.

 

And therein lies the difference between PUBLIC and PRIVATE healthcare...

 

Everyone who is begging for government run healthcare.....should remember this lesson.

[+ Keith30309]

Is there anyone familiar with how private insurance companies use the data about the services provided? What is the law vs what is common practice ?

 

When I get a STI full panel every 90 days I pay at the clinic out of pocket. If I get it via my GP and my insurer pays (or at least is aware) then 1) am I characterized as being a higher risk for insurability - by them or anyone else in the future, and, 2) is the data or even metadata shared with anyone including my employer (I.e., data that I simply had an HIV screen but not the results) ?

[+ Gar1eth]

I think I've answered yes sometimes and no sometimes. I think I answered yes at Gay City-a Seattle public clinic for gay men. But I'm pretty sure when I answered yes there my file was established under an alias. I can't remember if I've ever answered yes under my own name.

 

Gman

[+ purplekow]

I think I've answered yes sometimes and no sometimes. I think I answered yes at Gay City-a Seattle public clinic for gay men. But I'm pretty sure when I answered yes there my file was established under an alias. I can't remember if I've ever answered yes under my own name.

 

Gman

As a primary care physician, I can tell you that you will get better care the more honest you are about your history. However, whether you are paid for sex or have paid for sex is not an issue. The question is better asked as to whether you have had sex with partners who are professional sex provider or are you a professional sex provider. Some people have sex with professional sex providers without paying for it.

[+ Gar1eth]

I think I've answered yes sometimes and no sometimes. I think I answered yes at Gay City-a Seattle public clinic for gay men. But I'm pretty sure when I answered yes there my file was established under an alias. I can't remember if I've ever answered yes under my own name.

 

Gman

As a primary care physician, I can tell you that you will get better care the more honest you are about your history. However, whether you are paid for sex or have paid for sex is not an issue. The question is better asked as to whether you have had sex with partners who are professional sex provider or are you a professional sex provider. Some people have sex with professional sex providers without paying for it.

 

I usually agree with that statement. However as the these questions pertain to either sex trafficking-and I'm not being trafficked-or my risks for using street drugs (which I don't)/ having HIV or another STD (and receiving testing, risk reduction strategies, treatment)-but since I'm usually at an STD clinic for this and I know what to ask and have them look for /treat-and they will go over their spiel to begin with -in this case answering yes doesn't get me much.

 

And while I'm less leery these days of it stating that I'm gay in my regular doctor's records and that I might occasionally have unprotected sex-I am less sanguine about it being in my general medical record that I've hired escorts.

 

Gman

[+ Keith30309]

....f it stating that I'm gay in my regular doctor's records and that I might occasionally have unprotected sex-I am less sanguine about it being in my general medical record that I've hired escorts.

Gman

This... it’s my assumption that anything relevant to the diagnosing and treatment of any potential future malady is in a permanent record that any of my authorized medical providers have overt access to... and secondary parties like insurers, labs, etc, have access to. Even after I die.

In 20 years am I going to have to explain a regular succession of STI tests or doctor’s notations of multiple partner risk.

[marylander1940]

I think I've answered yes sometimes and no sometimes. I think I answered yes at Gay City-a Seattle public clinic for gay men. But I'm pretty sure when I answered yes there my file was established under an alias. I can't remember if I've ever answered yes under my own name.

 

Gman

 

As @purplekow posts honesty with a Dr. is always the best policy. Unless you're nominated to SCJ or decide to run for president, very few would ever care about your clinical records and if you ever got an STD.

 

We can always assume that gay men are more likely to have multiple partners even if they're in a relationship. I don't share with the Dr. that I often hire but I make sure he knows I'm active. That's all he needs to know.

[mike carey]

While I haven't been to a county clinic, when my gp asks me about my sexual habits, I don't lie. I lay it all out.

 

He's there to keep me healthy, not to judge me: If he did, I'd just find a new gp.

 

The more honest I am about my sexual history, the better he can gameplan.

That's the difference. You are talking to your primary health care doctor, they need to know about this for your care. A sexual health screening service does not need that information (in most circumstances that I can think of).

And therein lies the difference between PUBLIC and PRIVATE healthcare...

I disagree, it's got nothing to do with whether it's public or private. Your GP needs to know, whether they are publicly or privately funded. An STI testing service, public or private, does not need to know that detail of who you have sex with.

[+ nycman]

I disagree, it's got nothing to do with whether it's public or private.

We‘re gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.

 

I firmly believe people openly share things with a private

individual that they would never share with “the state”.

 

And in a doctor-patient relationship, open sharing is

vitally important.

[Rod Hagen]

At clinics, I assume they are building some database for some study that might be useful, I tell the hole truth.

 

I'm ashamed to say, I've never told my primary care physician the whole story. He knows I'm gay, he knows I'm active; he might benefit from knowing I'm for hire, but he's a family man and a friend and so in the 20 years I've known him I have held that part secret.

[mike carey]

We‘re gonna have to agree to disagree on this one.

Yep, we are. I suspect we see the 'landscape' in this question differently and our views are in part a product of our healthcare 'environments'. For me the government part of healthcare is much larger, and the government health bureaucracy (that sees my GP visits and any tests they order because if funds them, at least in part) looks more like 'healthcare' than 'government'. The part that is purely government differs between our countries too. The county clinic referred to in the OP is a small government run facility answerable to a county government so its purpose in asking the question is not clear. There is no analogue to that in this country. Here, it would be NGO run (say, the AIDS Council perhaps with some government funding) or a sexual health clinic overseen by the state health department and you would assume, probably correctly, that the data was being collected for a genuinely health related purpose.