Gender diversity and syphilis: something's going on?

Abstract

Introduction: This study aims to analyze the influence of syphilis among people with sexual and gender diversity, different from the binary dimension.

Materials and methods: A systematic review was conducted as a method to address the objective of the study, based on the Dialectical Structural Model of Care (DSM), to obtain the phenomenon from the perspective of cultural history.

Results: In this review the analysis of 129 documents, of which 22 texts were used. The construction of sex and gender in Western civilization is based on the Judeo-Christian tradition, which permitted many people throughout history to be persecuted and mistreated for living a lifestyle different from that dictated by religious and traditional canons. Therefore, throughout history, gender-diverse people, sexual minorities, and prostitutes have suffered segregation, mockery, aggression, and health problems, including syphilis.

Conclusions: Despite having a treatment and cure, syphilis has stood the test of time and has remained a secret pathology that is obscure and difficult to detect disease, which is still very much present in people of all social classes. It is necessary to review history to understand the reasons why syphilis is still prevalent in different societies today.

Keywords: gender; homosexuality; nursing history; sexuality; syphilis; transsexuality.