As the country warm's up, many people are beginning to head outside. And with that transition comes the inevitable focus on bathing suit season and health. Winter's over — it's time to toss the tissues of flu season, head out of hibernation and build a better you in two months so you don't have that many body image issues while on the beach. Even here at our office building today, management is holding a health fair with every thing from fitness tips and dance lessons to a blood drive.

While we've discussed on here before the issues of blood donation bans and former restrictions on HIV+ travelers, a recent study and letter in the New England Journal of Medicine caught my attention the other day. There's another area in healthcare where gays and lesbians are being overlooked and excluded — clinical trials on drugs.

Assistant Professor at Fox Chase Cancer Center Brian Egleston and colleagues headed up a recent study of more than 80,000 clinical trials to determine how many of these explicitly or more indirectly excluded gay and lesbian participants. Of the 243 studies identified as exclusionary, 15 percent (37) had explicit language stating as such. Another trend note was the higher likelihood of exclusion in trials sponsored by industry, covering most of the U.S. and in its third phase — or a broader study.

It is important to note that clinical trials on medicine can have exclusions (for instance, I'm sure the makers of Yaz or Progesterone might want to exclude male studies from their tests of drugs affecting the female menstrual cycle).  However, each exclusion needs a solid scientific argument for the need for the restriction as required by the National Institutes of Health guidelines.

The researchers said, "It is likely that most gay and lesbian patients are unaware of that their sexual orientation is being used as a screening factor for participation in clinical trials. Researchers should be held to careful scientific reasoning when they develop exclusion criteria that are based on sexual orientation."

While yes another area where gays and lesbians are being overlooked, I think it speaks to another important audience we should begin engaging in greater conversations. While gays and lesbians are at a more basic level male and female human beings, there are obvious differences between heterosexuals and homosexuals — differences which could have positive or negative effects in forthcoming medicine. What do you think?

Keep talking to your doctors, pharmacists and other medical professionals about your unique needs as an LGBT individual. A collective voice can continue making great strides in our changing healthcare landscape for gays and lesbians.