Yet, despite the health risks and challenges impacting LGBTQ young adults, little is known about their healthcare experiences for several reasons. Increasing knowledge and improving provider-patient interactions is essential to decreasing LGBTQ young adults’ health disparities and allowing for creation of targeted interventions that address their unique health needs. For LGBTQ young adults, their developmental stage and sexual and/or gender identities converge to create a nexus of risk factors and negative health outcomes that augment the health disparities seen in this population ( Strutz, Herring, & Halpern, 2015). Moreover, LGBTQ individuals report higher rates of depression, anxiety disorders, suicidality, and suicide attempts ( Eliason & Schope, 2001 Mayer et al., 2008 Lehavot & Simoni, 2011 Reisner, White, Bradford, & Mimiaga, 2014) relative to heterosexual and cisgender people. Similar negative health outcomes are seen in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ 1) populations, with LGB individuals being at even higher risk for certain STIs like HIV/AIDS (Wolitsky, Stall, & Valdiserri, 2008) and behavioral risk factors such as smoking, alcohol, and substance use ( Ward et al., 2014) than their heterosexual counterparts. As compared to adolescents and older adults, young adults have less access to care, participate in more risk-taking behaviors ( Irwin, 2010 Neinstein & Irwin, 2013), experience higher rates of substance use/abuse, and are at increased risk for serious mental health issues and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) ( Stroud, et al., 2015). The transition from pediatric to adult healthcare in the United States is associated with poorer health outcomes for young adults ( Stroud, Walker, Davis, & Irwin, 2015). Findings confirm and extend previous research on young adults’ identity disclosure and provide avenues continuing education for health professionals working with LGBTQ patients. When participants did disclose, they experienced reactions ranging from discrimination and disbelief to affirmation and respect.
Reasons for participant non-disclosure included providers not asking about identity, internalized stigma, and belief that health and LGBTQ identity are not related. Results revealed intra- and interpersonal factors related to patient disclosure. Participants’ responses to open-ended items asking about experiences of LGBTQ identity disclosure to medical providers and reasons for non-disclosure were analyzed thematically. Participants (N = 206, age range 18–27) completed questionnaires assessing healthcare access and use as part of a larger study. This study examined a diverse sample of LGBTQ young adults and their experiences of disclosure and non-disclosure to medical providers. However, patient non-disclosure of LGBTQ identity creates a barrier to accessing care. Shifting cultural attitudes and legislation have increased focus on the healthcare needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) patients.