Anyone who has sex can catch a sexually transmitted infection, but people who are LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous, Latine, or from other underserved communities often face more obstacles that make it harder to get tested, find reliable information, or access care.
Fortunately, community health workers say that there are now more resources and welcoming ways to help these communities learn about and prevent STIs. These efforts are helping to slow down the spread of STIs in the United States.
To learn more about how health care workers can better tackle misconceptions with their clients, Public Good News talked with Dr. Kathya Chartre, interim co-chief medical officer at Howard Brown Health, a Chicago clinic serving the LGBTQ+ community. She shared her perspectives about the importance of creating a comfortable environment in which to discuss sexuality and why it’s important for more health providers to provide STI testing.
Here’s more of what she said.
[Editor’s note: The contents of this interview have been edited for length and clarity.]
Public Good News: Can you share a bit about what your day to day looks like at Howard Brown?
Dr. Kathya Chartre: I have a couple of different hats, and I get to work with some of the most wonderful people you can imagine. So, at my clinic, where I’m the site’s medical director, we usually provide same-day or next-day care.
We do a lot of STI screening. We also will get people who are newly reactive with HIV, and we also counsel people on PrEP, which is pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV. So, it’s a way that people can protect themselves against HIV. And [we] also [counsel on] DoxyPEP, which is post-exposure prophylaxis for STI-related bacteria.
So, I think we really focus on providing an environment where people can talk about sexuality and feel comfortable asking questions.
When I think back to, like my earlier training and when I was younger, you know, if someone needed a gonorrhea and chlamydia test, you would give a urine swab and that would be it.
But now we go further, and we ask the question, ‘Are we having oral sex?’ So, we should be doing an oral swab.
‘Are we having anal sex?’ So, we should be doing an anal swab and also checking these other areas.
Also, we have a large Latino population here. I actually do some of the immigration physicals here at Howard Brown to help people get their green cards.
PGN: How does your clinic think about creating spaces that make people comfortable enough to ask questions about their health?
K.C.: I think it starts with just making your clinic more accessible to everyone.
At my clinic, I make sure that when you walk into the room there are pictures. There’s my “Empoderados” poster, which is in Spanish so people know that I speak Spanish, and our clinic offers Spanish-speaking services.
I have a picture of all the HIV medicines, so that tells someone that I have patients living with HIV and that I am familiar with that.
And then I have pictures of different couples in the room, so it’s friendly for my trans population, my gay population, and anyone who, whatever their sexual preference, is invited to talk about that.
By putting a couple of things on your walls, it opens up that discussion. Make it an environment where they know that you’re going to treat them with respect and not judge them.
PGN: Any other intentions a health worker might consider?
K.C.: My second thing would be to just ask. Like, ‘Do you have sex with people with penises, vaginas or both?’
You know, there’s some women with penises, and there’s some women with vaginas, and there’s some men with penises and there’s some men with vaginas.
So, I think the question just becomes a lot easier, asking about the body part we’re using, and asking, like, ‘What body parts do you use during sex?’ Then, that kind of also tells me which test I should be doing.
At first, as a provider, as a health educator, you have to be comfortable saying it out loud. You practice and it comes out comfortably. Then, the patients know that it’s a comfortable place and they can talk.
There are going to be some patients that will be taken aback, like, ‘What do you mean?’ You know? And I’m just like, ‘Oh, we like to be inclusive with everybody and ask those questions.’
I compare it a lot to, you know, depression and suicide. If you don’t ask, people might not tell you, but you have to ask.
Asking these questions might seem difficult at first, but they really become second nature if you keep asking them.
PGN: As a health worker that provides PrEP, what are some common misconceptions that you help your community navigate? What are some things you wish people knew?
K.C.: Lots of people think that PrEP is just for a certain population, and I think PrEP is for everyone.
You know, there are different options for different people, but knowing that there’s a medication that can protect you against HIV is really important.
I feel that the younger population has embraced it more. So, I see it more with them, but it’s available for anyone who’s having sex and feels that they might be at risk.
Another really important thing to keep in mind when we talk about PrEP is the idea of how well do you know your sexual partners?
You know, I’m sure some people can say that they really, really know them. But I see in the clinical [setting] all the time that people thought they were in a certain type of relationship and it turns out that they weren’t in that type of relationship.
You know, I have people who come in and they’re positive for gonorrhea and chlamydia, and then I say, ‘Hey, like, do you want to talk about PrEP?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no, I’m not, like, at risk for HIV.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, you know, I want you to think about it a little bit. Like, you’re coming in because you had one sexually transmitted illness or two. How are we sure we don’t have this other one?’
And it kind of makes people think a little bit. ‘You know, you didn’t think that you were going to get this from your partner, but you did. And how do we know that there’s not other things that can happen?’
A correction was made Aug. 5, 2025: An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that Dr. Kathya Chartre is interim co-chief marketing officer at Howard Brown Health. She is actually interim co-chief medical officer.