Video 2 – Clinicians Chat: Discussing Sexual Health with Your Patients
Transcript with Text Description
[0:00 – Logos for the United States Department of Health & Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)]
[0:06 – Video title: Clinicians Chat – Discussing Sexual Health With Your Patients]
[0:11 – Dr. David Malebranche, MD, MPH]
>>So, I think when I'm trying to encourage patients to do an HIV test or do STI testing, particularly with HIV test though, 
[0:22 – Text: Practice Tips for Clinicians – Normalize the conversation around sexuality and sexual health.]
>>is just to normalize the conversation around sexuality and their sexual health. So I start with very general questions. Like, 
[0:27 – Text: Conversation Starters – “Are you currently sexually active?”]
>>“Are you currently sexually active?” 
[0:29 – Text: Conversation Starters – “Who are you having sex with?”]
>>“Who are you having sex with?” 
[0:31 – Text: Conversation Starters – “Is this a primary partner or casual partner?”]
>>“What type of partner is this? Is this a primary partner? Is this a casual partner? Do you have multiple partners?” And really just try to deemphasize or de-stigmatize the conversation about sex. 
>>I think a lot of times we put pressure on ourselves that we really have to dive into the specifics at that moment. And we have to, "Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, are you having anal sex? Is it with a condom or not?" And those questions can be very intrusive. 
[0:57 – Text: Practice Tips for Clinicians – Start with open-ended questions that are less intrusive.]
>>So I think starting off with open-ended questions that are a little less intrusive, 
[1:02 – Text: Text: Conversation Starters – “Do you have any sexual health concerns?”]
>>“Do you have any sexual health concerns?” 
[1:04 – Text: Text: Conversation Starters – “Do you have any questions for me about sexually transmitted infections, HIV testing, performance, or pleasure?”]
>>“Are you currently having sex? And do you have any questions for me about sexually transmitted infections, HIV testing, performance, pleasure?” Those kinds of things I think will go a long way in opening the door and letting patients know that it's okay to have these conversations.
>>One of the other solutions that I talk about is that I think a lot of clinics do have the capacity with their medical assistants, nursing assistants, other staff members, that could ask some of the initial questions up front. 
[1:34 – Text: Practice Tips for Clinicians – If your clinic is very busy, have the staff member taking vitals ask if the patient has any sexual health concerns or questions for the provider.]
And if you're in a very busy clinic where you're seeing 20 to 30 patients a day and you don't have time to dig into all that, maybe if a medical assistant who's already taking vitals for them already can say, "Hey, do you have any sexual health concerns for the doctor today or for the nurse practitioner or the PA? And we'll relay that to them so that they can add that to what they need to address today.” The patients may say, "No, I'm actually good today," or, "I'm actually okay today." And then, you can go from there.
[2:00 – Text: Together we can make a difference]
[2:04 – Text becomes: Let’s Stop HIV Together]
[2:08 – Closing title text: HIV Nexus: CDC Resources for Clinicians]
[Logos for the United States Department of Health & Human Services and CDC, Let’s Stop HIV Together, and Ending the HIV Epidemic]
cdc.gov/HIVNexus

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