Chicago Fair Focuses on Lesbian Health

Lora Branch, director of the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health at the Chicago Department of Public Health, welcomed the second annual "Women Who Love Women Health Fest" to Chicago last week. The event was sponsored by Howard Brown Health Center, the University of Illinois-Chicago and several community groups.

Besides access issues related to the fact that many lesbians lack health insurance, many lesbians are uncomfortable coming out to their health care providers, who invariably ask them questions that assume heterosexuality, participants heard.

"By understanding more about lesbian health, I believe we understand more about women's health in general," said Tonda Hughes, associate professor in the UIC College of Nursing and director of research for the UIC Center of Excellence in Women's Health. "Lesbians are really no different than heterosexual women in terms of their bodies... [Their] risks ... are almost exclusively externally created. ...Being lesbian is not what creates the health problems, it's got to do with stigma and discrimination and cultural context in which lesbians live their lives."

Lesbians are known to face a host of increased risk factors for diseases such as depression, breast cancer, alcoholism and obesity. What is not so clear are the ways lesbians are often overlooked for other diseases, especially STDs.

"A lot of lesbians feel that if they're not having intercourse, they don't need to go to a gynecologist," said Maureen O'Leary, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. So the checks and balances heterosexual women receive at standard birth control visits -- Pap smear, breast exam, STDs check -- lesbians miss out on.

"...Lesbians are at risk for genital herpes, genital warts -- women can transmit directly to women, which we didn't know as a fact until a few years ago," said Dr. Leigh Roberts, medical director at the Howard Brown Health Center. "That means many providers don't know and consequently, aren't asking the right questions."

A lesbian who has had sex even once with a man -- and according to the United States Office on Women's Health, 90 percent of lesbians have -- may have been exposed to gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, HIV and human papillomavirus.

According to Roberts, the medical community and patients need to become educated about their risks and the resources available to help them deal with discrimination and social isolation.

Back to other CDC news for September 25, 2002

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