First Gay Clinic in Moscow
17/11/2006
Submitted by
Mikhail Syromolotov, Gay Youth Commonwealth 'GAYSER'
First Gay Clinic in Moscow
(Interview with director of the First Medical Center for Gays and Lesbians)
Yuri Petrovich, everyone is talking about the new medical center for gays and lesbians – are you changing sexual orientation of your patients?
- God forbid, no! In the first place, that’s impossible and science has proved it. Although I have heard about such clinics in our country but I think that’s illegal. We treat venereal and urological diseases.
Yuri Petrovich, why is it necessary to start treating gays at this particular period of time?
- We have been treating homosexual patients for a number of years, we just didn’t make it evident.
What made you start doing that openly?
- You know, we really liked the statement of the Gayser Community, which says that people in our country only use gays to make money but are never enthusiastic about really helping them.
Is it a bad thing to make money on gays?
- I have no objections to business, business is great. But I have always been against hypocrisy. And if we say that we help a boy of 18 by providing him with an invitation to a gay club where he can find his happiness, we deceive him at the least, because all that he finds there are booze-up and heavy cigarette smoke, it’s impossible either to talk to anyone or see anything there. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against such places but I wouldn’t call them really helpful. We’ve contacted the Gayser Community and realized that these people really do something for the lads, so we simply combined our efforts and the result is that you see a new clinic where gay diseases are treated.
How many of such clinics are in Russia?
- We are not only the first one, we are the only one. On the one hand, we could be proud of that, but on the other hand it is a very sad fact, because people in the regions have almost no chance to be examined properly.
What’s wrong with urologists and venereologists in the provinces? Is Moscow the hub of the universe with some special treatment conditions or special knowledge?
- Professional level of regional doctors is often considerably higher than of those in Moscow.
Then I don’t understand it – why would gays go to Moscow for medical treatment?
- For instance, because most venereologists have scarcely heard of such a disease as gonococcal proctitis, it is rectum gonorrhoea which has no symptoms but brings severe consequences or diseases like men’s Gardnerella vaginalis infections, which is actually vaginitis and is diagnosed in lots of clinics but only for women. They won’t even take tests for a man and will treat his prostatitis for years without knowing its cause and, naturally, there will never be any improvement. Homosexual intercourse has very important specific features, which aren’t taken into consideration during medical treatment. Should they spend 130 rubles on diagnostics of proctitis or live with chronic rectum gonorrhoea? That’s the question.
What if someone would instruct regional urologists informing them of these diseases?
- The matter is that actually all doctors studied them in college but this knowledge is dead for them, like knowledge about cholera treatment. They don’t deal with it in practice so if they encounter it one day they won’t recognize it – will think of anything but cholera.
Would it be helpful if the patient mentioned his homosexuality during examination, so the doctor would think of this very ‘cholera’ in the first place?
- That’s the essence of the problem! It is necessary to inform the doctor of the kind of sexual life that you have! If you don’t do it, why would the doctor, for instance, take the DNA test out of the rectum or the oral cavity? Even very high-level specialists who are aware of such diseases won’t think of doing that.
That’s the first difficulty – in order to tell that to a doctor, you need to be sure that there won’t be any negative reaction on his part. Such is the state of things in our Center. Some cases are really curious – one patient was afraid to tell the doctor about his itching sphincter and said that his buttocks were itching, so he got the recommendation to wash his underwear in hypo-allergenic children’s soap. Then he came to our clinic and openly told us about everything, so we found the real cause – rectum gonorrhoea.
And I’ve already mentioned the second difficulty – doctors seldom deal with cases of homosexual intercourse and therefore don’t know much about it, because there aren’t many people practicing it and they keep silent during the examination!
One more big advantage of our Center is that we’ve gained considerable experience in treatment of these particular diseases – we don’t experiment, we just cure them.
Are these diseases really as dreadful as cholera?
- Of course not. Speaking of cholera I meant its specificity, not its danger. These diseases are common.
But you’ve mentioned rectum gonorrhoea. Is it really a simple common disease?
- Yes, it’s a simple disease, just a common gonorrhoea. It is simple form the urologist’s point of view, but gonococcal proctitis is a very dangerous disease because it runs without any symptoms but causes urethritis, prostatitis and clamidiosis; and if prolonged it affects testicle and epididymis. Patients are constantly treated for the consequences but the diseases come back – again and again – because the cause hasn’t been eliminated.
Do you treat gays only or you treat lesbians as well?
- Female homosexual intercourse is also very specific, so we help them too.
What is the role of the GAYSER Community in this process?
- The GAYSER Community allowed us to come out of underground. Their name is quite respectable and when they say that we are trustworthy that opinion is very valuable – during the whole time of their existence they didn’t sell themselves to anyone, thought they found almost no support among the people of business. But that is the intellectual part – besides their brand it is very important to us that these people have developed an Internet project and rendered real help to our Medical Center – help with remodeling, information and legal issues.
Do you make money on your patients? You seem to be a unique clinic for them.
- I can’t call our Center a charitable institution: we’ve got to have professional doctors on staff, pay our rent downtown Moscow, and that takes quite a lot of money. But in spite of all that our prices are ones of the lowest in Moscow, that’s easy to see in the Internet.
How is it helpful for gays and lesbians, if you charge them for it?
- That’s the help! Not only we are the place where the patients may openly talk about their problems knowing that they’ll be perfectly understood. An understanding doctor is only a half of success. We are the doctors who have gained considerable experience in treatment of the specific diseases related to homosexual intercourse and we don’t experiment on our patients. At that, we don’t earn as much as we could have. That was one of our agreements with the human rights organization GAYSER, our partners in this project – to charge as much as would be sufficient for paying the prime cost of a very good laboratory, keeping the doctors from starvation and covering the rent. We’ve got other opportunities for business and make good money.
What would you like to wish our audience?
- Never torture yourself about what you do with your partner in bed, that concerns only you and nobody else. Unfortunately there are still lots of homophobes and discontented people in our country who constantly meddle with other people’s lives.
Is there a joke or a funny story about homosexual relationships that is your favorite?
- I like the joke of my good friend Mikhail Syromolotov, the President of the GAYSER: “If someone tells you that you’re gay because you’ve never had a good woman, tell him that he’s straight only because he’s never had a good man”.
Could you give some recommendation in the end?
- My professional advice – don’t defer treatment of your disease; its consequences may be worse and more difficult to cure than the disease itself! And don’t loose your sense of humour and romance in your relationships!
Thank you for the interview.
(Interview with director of the First Medical Center for Gays and Lesbians)
Yuri Petrovich, everyone is talking about the new medical center for gays and lesbians – are you changing sexual orientation of your patients?
- God forbid, no! In the first place, that’s impossible and science has proved it. Although I have heard about such clinics in our country but I think that’s illegal. We treat venereal and urological diseases.
Yuri Petrovich, why is it necessary to start treating gays at this particular period of time?
- We have been treating homosexual patients for a number of years, we just didn’t make it evident.
What made you start doing that openly?
- You know, we really liked the statement of the Gayser Community, which says that people in our country only use gays to make money but are never enthusiastic about really helping them.
Is it a bad thing to make money on gays?
- I have no objections to business, business is great. But I have always been against hypocrisy. And if we say that we help a boy of 18 by providing him with an invitation to a gay club where he can find his happiness, we deceive him at the least, because all that he finds there are booze-up and heavy cigarette smoke, it’s impossible either to talk to anyone or see anything there. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against such places but I wouldn’t call them really helpful. We’ve contacted the Gayser Community and realized that these people really do something for the lads, so we simply combined our efforts and the result is that you see a new clinic where gay diseases are treated.
How many of such clinics are in Russia?
- We are not only the first one, we are the only one. On the one hand, we could be proud of that, but on the other hand it is a very sad fact, because people in the regions have almost no chance to be examined properly.
What’s wrong with urologists and venereologists in the provinces? Is Moscow the hub of the universe with some special treatment conditions or special knowledge?
- Professional level of regional doctors is often considerably higher than of those in Moscow.
Then I don’t understand it – why would gays go to Moscow for medical treatment?
- For instance, because most venereologists have scarcely heard of such a disease as gonococcal proctitis, it is rectum gonorrhoea which has no symptoms but brings severe consequences or diseases like men’s Gardnerella vaginalis infections, which is actually vaginitis and is diagnosed in lots of clinics but only for women. They won’t even take tests for a man and will treat his prostatitis for years without knowing its cause and, naturally, there will never be any improvement. Homosexual intercourse has very important specific features, which aren’t taken into consideration during medical treatment. Should they spend 130 rubles on diagnostics of proctitis or live with chronic rectum gonorrhoea? That’s the question.
What if someone would instruct regional urologists informing them of these diseases?
- The matter is that actually all doctors studied them in college but this knowledge is dead for them, like knowledge about cholera treatment. They don’t deal with it in practice so if they encounter it one day they won’t recognize it – will think of anything but cholera.
Would it be helpful if the patient mentioned his homosexuality during examination, so the doctor would think of this very ‘cholera’ in the first place?
- That’s the essence of the problem! It is necessary to inform the doctor of the kind of sexual life that you have! If you don’t do it, why would the doctor, for instance, take the DNA test out of the rectum or the oral cavity? Even very high-level specialists who are aware of such diseases won’t think of doing that.
That’s the first difficulty – in order to tell that to a doctor, you need to be sure that there won’t be any negative reaction on his part. Such is the state of things in our Center. Some cases are really curious – one patient was afraid to tell the doctor about his itching sphincter and said that his buttocks were itching, so he got the recommendation to wash his underwear in hypo-allergenic children’s soap. Then he came to our clinic and openly told us about everything, so we found the real cause – rectum gonorrhoea.
And I’ve already mentioned the second difficulty – doctors seldom deal with cases of homosexual intercourse and therefore don’t know much about it, because there aren’t many people practicing it and they keep silent during the examination!
One more big advantage of our Center is that we’ve gained considerable experience in treatment of these particular diseases – we don’t experiment, we just cure them.
Are these diseases really as dreadful as cholera?
- Of course not. Speaking of cholera I meant its specificity, not its danger. These diseases are common.
But you’ve mentioned rectum gonorrhoea. Is it really a simple common disease?
- Yes, it’s a simple disease, just a common gonorrhoea. It is simple form the urologist’s point of view, but gonococcal proctitis is a very dangerous disease because it runs without any symptoms but causes urethritis, prostatitis and clamidiosis; and if prolonged it affects testicle and epididymis. Patients are constantly treated for the consequences but the diseases come back – again and again – because the cause hasn’t been eliminated.
Do you treat gays only or you treat lesbians as well?
- Female homosexual intercourse is also very specific, so we help them too.
What is the role of the GAYSER Community in this process?
- The GAYSER Community allowed us to come out of underground. Their name is quite respectable and when they say that we are trustworthy that opinion is very valuable – during the whole time of their existence they didn’t sell themselves to anyone, thought they found almost no support among the people of business. But that is the intellectual part – besides their brand it is very important to us that these people have developed an Internet project and rendered real help to our Medical Center – help with remodeling, information and legal issues.
Do you make money on your patients? You seem to be a unique clinic for them.
- I can’t call our Center a charitable institution: we’ve got to have professional doctors on staff, pay our rent downtown Moscow, and that takes quite a lot of money. But in spite of all that our prices are ones of the lowest in Moscow, that’s easy to see in the Internet.
How is it helpful for gays and lesbians, if you charge them for it?
- That’s the help! Not only we are the place where the patients may openly talk about their problems knowing that they’ll be perfectly understood. An understanding doctor is only a half of success. We are the doctors who have gained considerable experience in treatment of the specific diseases related to homosexual intercourse and we don’t experiment on our patients. At that, we don’t earn as much as we could have. That was one of our agreements with the human rights organization GAYSER, our partners in this project – to charge as much as would be sufficient for paying the prime cost of a very good laboratory, keeping the doctors from starvation and covering the rent. We’ve got other opportunities for business and make good money.
What would you like to wish our audience?
- Never torture yourself about what you do with your partner in bed, that concerns only you and nobody else. Unfortunately there are still lots of homophobes and discontented people in our country who constantly meddle with other people’s lives.
Is there a joke or a funny story about homosexual relationships that is your favorite?
- I like the joke of my good friend Mikhail Syromolotov, the President of the GAYSER: “If someone tells you that you’re gay because you’ve never had a good woman, tell him that he’s straight only because he’s never had a good man”.
Could you give some recommendation in the end?
- My professional advice – don’t defer treatment of your disease; its consequences may be worse and more difficult to cure than the disease itself! And don’t loose your sense of humour and romance in your relationships!
Thank you for the interview.
