POD Rainbow Science

PRS#16: How to eliminate internalized homophobia + bonus exercise

Besides social changes and more positive attitude towards gender and sexually diverse people, LGBTQ individuals still experience negative emotions stemming from social inequality. One of the most well-known phenomena explaining the relationship between social prejudice and mental well-being in this group is internalized homophobia, experienced, with varied intensity, by almost all LGBTQ persons. In this episode I’m explaining what internalized homophobia is and where it comes from. Also, having in mind that Christmas vacation is not the easiest time for many LGBTQ persons, I’m talking about an exercise called ‘Thoughts Challenging’, which help to control the negative thoughts and emotions we experience in relation to difficult situations. 

The table for the exercise with an example, can be downloaded from here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D0Lk5pt8hD92or9T3GdzZSZ88hnpei0y/view?usp=sharing

Music: bensound.com

PRS#15: mRNA vaccine against HIV – is it the end of an epidemic?

There are approximately 40-42 million people living in HIV. Since 1980s, the number of new cases increased dramatically every year, in 1995 antiretroviral therapy became available, number of new cases still increased year after year but the number became significantly lower compared to the times before 1995. Until now, a lot has changed we have new types of combined antiretroviral therapies, which enable people to easy adhere to treatment, we came up with new ways of prophylaxis like post-exposure and pre-exposure prophylaxis, all those things gave the impression that vaccine is just a matter of time. In this episode we’ll take a look at the history of HIV vaccine and new Moderna trial which uses the new mRNA technology.

 If you’re hungry for more, here are studies and websites worth attention:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31951766/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28281871/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30030787/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31271322/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30047376/
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05001373

Music: bensound.com

PRS#14: HIV-2? New mutation of the same virus?

December 1st – International AIDS Day. I thought it’s a magnificent occasion to tackle the problem of different types of HIV. Not many people know that there is more than one type of HIV, in addition not many scientists are interested in HIV-2. In this episode I’m telling a little bit about how HIV transmitted onto humans and what’s the difference between HIV-1 and HIV-2.

If you want to read something about HIV-2, here are a few papers I think might be worth reading:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30052509/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1365-3156.2000.00627.x
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27530215/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28358736/

Music: bensound.com

PRS#13: Non-binary? Means who?

The term transgender became more and more popular over the last decades, however transgender community is colorful and transgender persons might present many different identities. Non-binary identities are less recognized, so I thought it would be nice to clarify this term and explain what’s the difference between non-binary and transgender binary people. 

If you want to read interesting pieces on non-binary identities, I recommend those things:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6830997/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11930-017-0111-8
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09540261.2015.1106446
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26895269.2021.1995801?src=recsys

And if your counsellor or therapist needs something to read, give them this one - Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender- Nonconforming People: https://wpath.org/publications/soc
Music: bensound.com

PRS#12: Sexual dysfunctions in LGB men and women

Sexual dysfunctions are prevalent in population, however the prevalence of sexual dysfunctions in LGBT community seems to be elevated as compared to straight people. In this episode I’m talking about the most prevalent sexual dysfunction in lesbian, gay and bisexual men and women, the most frequently diagnosed causes and most popular ways to treat them. 

Music: bensound.com

 A few Interesting research on this issue:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29073684/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33931381/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22375801/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33420894/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21501095/

PRS#11: Sexual satisfaction in women

Sex life is one the most important predictor of good relationship and good life, for years women’s sexuality was neglected and inferior to men’s sexuality. Sexual minority women were in the especially bad position, because the vast majority of research focused on women’s relationship issues such as lesbian bed death, problems with attachment or grief over not having children with a partner, while sexual satisfaction and positive aspect of sex lives in sexual minority women were often omitted by scholars. 

In this episode I’m talking about sexual satisfaction in same-sex women’s relationship and factors linked with good-quality sex life. 

Here are a few research you might find interesting:

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/jwh.2006.0308

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J082v23n03_01

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224499.2013.795924

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00926230600998466

Music: bensound.com

PRS#10: Why is Donald Trump bad for mental health?

Politicians and public figures have a profound impact on people’s lives and well-being, not only via law or acts, but also via words they use and speeches they give. Since the era of Donald Trump’s presidency is often considered to be the dark age for LGBTQ Americans, in this episode I’m trying to explain how politics and mental health are related.

Couple of interesting research:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34198029/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31829453/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32606040/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10775587211004308

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/heq.2017.0002

 Music: bensound.com

PRS#9: Minority Stress

Members of the rainbow community experience mental and physical adversities significantly more often compared to their straight counterparts. In this episode, I’m talking about minority stress – the conceptual framework that helps to explain discrepancy in mental health between straight and non-straight people.

If you want to read more on this, here are some worth mentioning papers:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2072932/
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-97197-010
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027273581000125X
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jomf.12415 

Music: bensound.com

PRS#8: Evelyn Hooker – a woman who saved the gays

In this episode you’re going to hear about Evelyn Hooker, the myth buster who started the revolution and led to removal of homosexuality from psychiatric handbook of disorders. 
In addition, there are a few words about projective methods and why today we shouldn’t rely on them.
To read Hooker's publication go here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08853126.1957.10380742

Music: bensound.com

PRS#7: Lesbian bed death

Lesbian bed death became popular phenomenon in the early 80s and since then growing number of urban legends about it became widespread in gay and lesbian community. The truth is that lesbian bed death, even though popular, does not have scientific evidence to support the hypothesis that it is something real. In this episode I’m looking at the first publication on lesbian bed death (Schwartz & Blumstein - American Couples: Money, Work, Sex) and subsequent studies on lesbians’ sex life. 

Music: bensound.com