For many in the LGBTQ+ community, sharing personal health information—such as birth gender or medical history—can be uncomfortable. Concerns about discrimination or privacy often lead individuals to withhold crucial details. However, in healthcare and clinical trials, openness is essential to ensuring safety, effective treatment, and equitable health outcomes.
With shifting policies and growing concerns about medical privacy, these fears are understandable. But experts in the clinical trial space emphasize that transparency is not just a personal choice—it has a broader impact on the community as a whole. Ensuring LGBTQ+ representation in clinical research is essential for addressing health disparities and improving treatment outcomes.
Why Transparency Matters in Clinical Trials
Fred Martin, CEO of SubjectWell and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, highlights the importance of full disclosure in clinical research. “You have to break out the parts of LGBTQ+. For most of the members of the community, being LGBTQ+ isn’t a health-related issue. We are just normal people. But anyone who is on a medication or has a health issue or could have had a surgery that could impact the outcomes of the study, it is critical for that to be discussed before joining a clinical trial.”
Being upfront about medical history isn’t just about individual safety—it’s about ensuring that medical advancements truly work for everyone. Clinical trials are designed to test new treatments, but if they don’t account for the diverse medical backgrounds of participants, they risk producing misleading results. That’s why researchers emphasize the need for detailed health information. “Researchers need to know medications, health history, and surgeries to fully capture and understand the impacts of the study,” Martin explains. He points out that the lack of LGBTQ+ data in trials means scientists are often in the dark about how treatments might affect this group differently. “Very little research has focused on LGBTQ+ outcomes in a clinical trial, and all trials should take this into consideration to understand if there are differences in outcomes. The only way for researchers to know that is for the LGBTQ+ community to self-identify.”
SubjectWell is committed to making this process easier. By fostering an inclusive research environment, they help ensure that LGBTQ+ individuals feel safe and supported when sharing their medical histories. Creating a culture of trust and inclusivity in clinical trials is key to making sure the medical field evolves in a way that benefits everyone.
Diversity in Clinical Trials: A Step Toward Equity
Diversity in clinical trials is crucial for developing treatments that are safe and effective for everyone. A truly representative study includes participants of different age groups, sexes, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and socioeconomic statuses, ensuring that results reflect the diversity of the real world. Without inclusive representation, therapies may be less effective—or even harmful—for certain groups, leaving critical gaps in medical research.
Beyond scientific necessity, inclusivity in research is also an ethical obligation. Historically, many communities, including LGBTQ+ individuals, have been underrepresented or mistreated in medical studies. Ensuring representation in clinical trials helps rebuild trust in the healthcare system while also addressing health disparities and uncovering important biological differences in treatment response.
Martin reinforces this point: “Diversity in clinical trials is essential to developing treatments that are safe and effective for everyone. When studies reflect the broad range of age, sex, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic backgrounds found in the real world, the results are more applicable and reliable.”
The Risks of Withholding Medical Information
Choosing not to disclose one’s full medical history in a clinical trial can have serious consequences. Without accurate health data, researchers may draw incomplete conclusions, leading to treatments that do not work optimally for all populations. Transparency ensures that clinical trials produce reliable data that benefit both current participants and future patients.
Martin puts it plainly: “If you don’t share all your information, you could be impacting your outcomes, which could negatively impact your health. Researchers need to know everything about you—your health, medical conditions, medications, etc.—to make sure the study is safe for you.” In other words, withholding information doesn’t just pose a risk to the individual—it can slow down medical progress for the entire community. “Additionally, by knowing about you, they can help others who share your characteristics. This is about safety and efficiency.”
Building Trust and Overcoming Fears
Mistrust of the healthcare system remains a significant barrier for many LGBTQ+ individuals. Historical injustices—from the treatment of LGBTQ+ people in medical research to the government’s response to the AIDS epidemic—have left lasting scars. Many still hesitate to participate in clinical trials due to concerns about discrimination or mistreatment.
“The world has not treated members of the LGBTQ+ community well,” Martin acknowledges. “When you look at Holocaust studies, Washington’s response to the AIDS epidemic, healthcare discrimination in daily life, and the current political climate, people don’t have trust in the system. It is natural to worry about divulging one’s sexual orientation.”
However, Martin reassures that progress is being made. More organizations are prioritizing diversity in clinical trials, ensuring that LGBTQ+ individuals feel welcomed and respected. “As a member of the community and as someone whose company supports clinical trials, this industry is focused on diversity and makes it a priority for all the reasons listed above.”
While discrimination still exists, the push for inclusivity is stronger than ever. “I can’t guarantee every person you come across will treat you with dignity (and if they don’t, we call them out), but we owe it to our community to make sure outcomes of clinical trials are safe for everyone, and that includes LGBTQ+ people. We must advocate for our wellness and for treatments that work for us as well as the greater society.”
A Call for Action: Embracing Visibility and Advocacy
The path to more inclusive healthcare requires effort from both the medical community and the LGBTQ+ population. Martin puts it simply: “We need the U.S. healthcare system to embrace and champion the LGBTQ+ community as well as us championing for ourselves. We need our LGBTQ+ physicians to be PIs in studies and help advocate for us. We need to be visible, but we can’t do it alone.”
To learn more about how SubjectWell is helping to make clinical trials more patient-centric and diverse, visit SubjectWell’s homepage.
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