geminigirl | Odds and Ends

The FDA is considering approval of an entirely at home HIV test. They won't approve over the counter sales of Emergency Contraception but they'll consider this? I think it's important for people to know their HIV status, and I think it's great that there's an effort to make that accessible. But there's a lot of stress and emotion involved in getting an HIV test, and a lot of misinformation available, and I think it's really a good idea to talk to someone when considering an HIV test, or getting HIV test results, and a good idea to make sure that correct information is available, proper resources, and referrals, and so on. Thoughts/opinions/tomatoes from other people?

Today is Men Make Dinner Day. My response...huh? Let's perpetuate sterotypes that men don't cook...right? Most of the men I know who are partnered with people who are not-men (and that has to be said only because in households where all the partners are men, obviously men do the cooking) share in the cooking responsibilities. I do most of the cooking in our house, because I'm home to do it, and because Cayne says I'm a better cook than he is. I like doing the cooking too, though I'm not always inspired to cook when it's just me.

One of the worst penis enlargement stories I've ever read.

Cayne is working the next two Saturdays. I should probably be glad that it's taken this long for it to happen, and that it's expected to only be two Saturdays, and not Saturday and Sunday or more weekends than that. This game cycle is ending soon-within about a month. Then I'll ask Cayne about posting some of theamusing things he came home and told me during production. Still, I'm really with

ea_spouse on the system here. If the cycle for everyone is perpetually in cruch, then something isn't right with either the timeline or workload or both.

There's not much else going on. Starting to make the holiday card list, and think about winter holidays. I think one of the things I'll miss is the smell of the air just before it snows...that cold, crisp smell, and the pink sky.

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Re: OraQuick - it's the test we run at my clinic, and we were just recently trained on it, so we were discussing the implcations of it going OTC. Nobody is for it - paper is not counseling. Paper is not referrals to actual places near you, with people who can help you. Paper is not able to help a client decide if they're actually capable of handling the test, and possible reactivity.

Exactly. There were a lot of changes in HIV pretest/posttest counseling stuff when rapid testing became a possibiltiy. And even with previous versions of home testing, there was contact with a trained person involved. I just worry about the implications of this-it may happen that more people will be screened for HIV and know their status, but will those people get treatment/counsling/care they need?

That penis story trumps my apple-up-the-ass story.

Yeah, I noticed the articles about home hiv testing and I feel kinda iffy about it. I think finding out with no counseling available would probably be a bad thing. It's not a death sentence anymore, but I'm sure it still feels like one on first blush.

NO. bad idea, FDA.

'nuf said. ;-)

oh, and re: holiday cards - me too, can you pop over here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/jennifer0246/249729.html) and tell me where to send yours? i know i have your addy from a while back, but i'm terribly disorganized and have no idea where :)

We've probably moved since you had whatever address you had anyway-if you sent one last year, it would have gone to NJ.

I have to sit down and make the non-LJ list before I put the lj poll up, so I have things organized, and can make sure I have enough cards (bought a bunch last year at a 75% off sale when we were in Canada.)

Predictably I'm not too comfortable with the home testing scenario either. Mostly becasue of the lack of counselling. But if it leads to a substantial increase in the number of total tests being performed, I could be persuaded . .

I can see the advantage for more testing...but I do wonder about the results? Will most people who get tests change their risky behavior-that's one of the things that we can do with pre/post test counseling, is encourage behavior change. There's also the question of whether or not people will follow up with appropriate care after the test.

I'd love for testing to be that accessible and comfortable and yet still have the back up of speaking to a reliable source and assistance.

I think home testing is a net plus, but I think people should generally be allowed to do stupid things, once they acknowledge that what they're doing has been officially classified as stupid. That would apply to presription drugs and recreational drugs, too.

I will not take a test with people around. I will need to be alone, and safe. I will not have that result read to me by someone else, not a presence in the room, not a telephone call, not a robot. When I fall apart, I will be alone where I do not have to put up a front or slog my way through having a counselor around.

I have not been tested in over 5 years.

As far as the penis story goes, it is bad, but not half as bad as the attitudes as shown by the writer. They see and slag on stupidity when what they were obviously seeing was desperation ("Nothing could help you in that department down there").

They see and slag on stupidity when what they were obviously seeing was desperation

Yes, desperation combined with chemical courage/bad judgment.

Home tests for any STI are illegal here. Work (in the sense of the wider charity) are all in favour of legalisation: the mission is to reduce the level of undiagnosed infection.

Their argument is that it's like pregnancy tests - once illegal, now so utterly normal that teenagers don't believe they were ever not available over the counter.

Personally, I'm more dubious. My big issue is confidentiallty: with one of these tests, I can easily find out the HIV status of someone else.

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