Dykes and the C-Word

The Lesbian Cancer Initiative at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center just wrapped up the first eight-week cycle of a new group therapy session for lesbian survivors of cancer—the only group of its kind in New York. Advocates say it's about time New York caught up with Chicago, D.C., Atlanta, and other cities that long ago recognized the need for specialized resources, given that lesbians may have a particularly high risk for developing breast and gynecological cancers.

The bad news hit the LGBT community about 13 years ago when the National Cancer Institute announced that lesbians have a two- to threefold higher lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. Suzanne Haynes, an epidemiologist and former chief of the health education section of the National Cancer Institute, took known risk factors and looked to see if they occurred more among lesbians and found that they did. It was partly bad habits—overweight lesbians drinking and smoking too much—and partly science: Interruptions of the body's estrogen production, which can be brought about by bearing children or taking the pill, are believed to decrease the risk of cervical and breast cancer.

The gay and mainstream press ate it up—eager, it seems, for some definitive information about lesbian health. Advocates made breast cancer a sort of dyke poster disease years before pink-ribbon activism hit the malls.

But more recent studies indicate that lesbians may not have such bad habits in comparison to straight women after all. Last year, researchers from the University of California San Francisco and Lyon-Martin Women's Health Services in San Francisco found that, in comparing 324 lesbians with their straight biological sisters, there were no significant differences in smoking, alcohol consumption, or utilization of health care services. And though the lesbians were fatter, they exercised at the same rates and ate low-fat and vegetarian diets at the same rates as their straight siblings. These results, published in
Women's Health Issues, corroborated their 2002 findings.

http://villagevoice.com/people/0552,hunter,71342,24.html

they're always trying to make us hate ourselves, and we just keep not doin it.

they can't seem to realize that coming Out has everything to do with self-respect.


peace and solidarity!

Only to increase your risk of heart attack and stroke.

I'll pass.


Thanks for the article kweerwolf, it's nice they actually did a study rather than just speculating (for once).

Very interesting information.

I have heretofore always found it interesting to read that since lesbians (usually) don't bear children, they are at a greater risk for this and that.

But I never hear them point out, at the same time, the complications and potential health problems that come with being pregnant and of course, childbirth.

The other thing, about lesbians being "fatter" than straight women, but exercising just as much? Maybe they aren't as hung up on being skinny for a guy? Just a thought.

Thanks for posting the link.