A common myth about people with disabilities is they don’t have sex.

Perhaps it is no surprise then that Canadian women with disabilities suffer poorer gynecological health and receive less preventative screening, according to a 2016 study.

Facing findings

I recently listened to an episode of CBC Radio’s White Coat, Black Art that explores how the sexual health needs of Canadian women with disabilities suffer as a result of improper training and equipment.

Jocelyn Maffin, a woman paralyzed from the belly button down, spoke about her experience in the healthcare system as she underwent puberty and grew into a sexually active adult.

At age 14, Maffin learned about menstruation, but not about STIs and contraception.

I wasn’t on birth control. The HPV vaccine had come out and I didn’t get it. All of those conversations my peers were having with their physicians, I was pretty oblivious about and those conversations weren’t happening when I saw my own doctors.

It wasn’t until I was over 30 that I was helping with a sexual health resource for people with spinal cord injuries and I realized there were whole conversations here that young people, I think particularly with conditions from childhood, just weren’t having with their physicians.

What needs fixing

Maffin’s story shows there’s a lot of work to be done in order to provide more accessible sexual health services. I encourage you to listen to the full radio interview.

Fortunately, Maffin eventually found BC Women’s Access Clinic, a gynecological clinic based in Vancouver that specializes in the needs of women with disabilities. The program also interviewed nurse practitioner Natasha Prodan-Bhalla from the health centre.

Both women highlighted problems that must be addressed to make sexual health a top priority when treating ALL women in Canada:

• Poor availability of transit services to clinics and hospitals
• Mammogram machines often do not lower to wheelchair level and require two aids to hold up a patient
• Patient rooms lack lifts to take a patient from a wheelchair to exam bed
• Small patient rooms and narrow hallways and doors
• Not all patients can use stirrups often used for gynecological exams
• People with disabilities are sometimes not viewed as full human beings
• People with disabilities are seen as asexual
• Healthcare staff may avoid sexual health topics out of fear, likely caused by a lack of training and lack of assistive medical equipment available in clinics
• Doctors not able to give enough time to address all the needs of people with complex medical conditions, so sexual health is often overlooked

What else needs to be addressed so people with disabilities receive appropriate sexual and reproductive healthcare?

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