I found the
original definition of GBS from 1976 in Annals of Clinical and Laboratory Science.
If it's not:
1) A refereed medical journal article
2) A physicians diagnostic reference with citations
don't bother.
Very strictly speaking I don't think it satisfies either of your criteria, but it is still a valid source IMO (see
here for a full description of the publication).
If you put GBS into the search facility of PubMed you get 25 results, 20 of which are from the 80s, 3 from the 90s and 2 from the 2000s - which possibly suggests the term is falling out of fashion.
I found an
article in The Washington Blade (Washington D.C. magazine for gays) which states that the CDC used to use the term but doesn't anymore.
An official with the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention said LGV is not “gay bowel syndrome.” The rare chlamydia strain has been around since the 1970s, and may have once been considered among the various diseases doctors loosely referred to as “gay bowel syndrome,” according to Jessica Frickey, a spokesperson for the federal health agency.
But it’s difficult for the CDC to know ”let alone track ” which diseases used to be included in “gay bowel syndrome” because the term was so informal and has since gone out of use at the CDC, Frickey said.
One of the articles listed in PubMed is from the Journal Of Homosexuality (which is a peer-reviewed publication) has
this abstract:
Ohio State University, USA.
In 1976, a group of physicians in private proctologic practice in New York City coined the illness "Gay Bowel Syndrome" in reference to a constellation of gay male anorectal disorders. Through analysis of biomedical discourse and popular media, it is apparent that Gay Bowel Syndrome is an essentialized category of difference that is neither gay-specific, confined to the bowel, nor a syndrome. The use and diagnosis of Gay Bowel Syndrome must be abandoned before it further lends itself to the formation of social policies and governing practices that seek to force gay male bodies into positions of social, cultural, and political subordination.
So in summary I'd say Gay Bowel Syndrome was once in relatively common use in the medical profession but is on the way out.
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