- Question from Non-stereotype: Why do so many medical professionals assume all lesbians smoke, drink, and are stressed out? It really makes me angry.
- Answers —Lisa Weissmann, M.D.: I hear you and much of that information comes from data on lesbians that was drawn from research that was obtained at bars and softball games—wherever researchers could find a high concentration of lesbians. Therefore, much of the original data on lesbian health was somewhat skewed because if you ask how many people drink in a bar, it will probably be pretty high. Newer epidemiologic studies trying to incorporate a much broader and diverse group of self-identified lesbians are showing while some of these stereotypes do indeed characterize lesbians in general, there is as much diversity within the lesbian population as without. Nevertheless, lesbians as a whole tend to have a slightly higher weight and have slightly higher rates of alcohol use and cigarette use, past or present, than similarly aged straight women. This clearly is of concern for the health of the lesbian population.
- Cheryl Pearson-Fields, M.P.H.: This issue really speaks to the importance of funding population-based research on lesbian health because while there has been a number of studies on lesbian health, as Dr. Weissmann pointed out, they got to the people that were easy to get to. It takes money to do randomized studies of lesbians. It's very difficult methodologically to do those studies, but I think the next wave of lesbian health research will be moving in that direction.
- Lisa Weissmann, M.D.: Cheryl, you bring up an excellent point, and some of the real political work that is going on in lesbian health is really looking to push the government agencies, such as the CDC and the NIH, to start including lesbians as a group to be studied in large national surveys. There are many national health surveys where we would love to see sexual orientation included in the demographics so we can finally get a real picture of what the state of lesbian health is and what the risks are for lesbians in the future. The recent Healthy People 2010 (health policy for the entire country looking at where we should be in ten years for the health of the nation) has a 60-page addendum (or white paper) attached to this document looking at the health concerns of gays and lesbians which will hopefully push the government towards looking specifically at funding gay and lesbian research. And then maybe we'll find out whether we all drink and smoke and are stressed too much, or maybe that's only because we worry about softball.
- Cheryl Pearson-Fields, M.P.H.: There are two critical things around that document. One is in addition to the white paper, earlier this year there was a Healthy People 2010 companion document that was released that addressed exclusively the need of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. That is a 500-page document. The other issue is that for the first time in history lesbian and gay issues were added to the data tables for Healthy People 2010. Hopefully we will see data being collected on sexual orientation in those large studies that will continue in the future.
- Marisa Weiss, M.D., president and founder: Where can our Breastcancer.org community users go to read the existing report?
- Lisa Weissmann, M.D.: www.glma.org (The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association) was one of the major contributors, along with many others including Mautner and Columbia. But on the website of GLMA they have a link where you can order a copy of the companion document.
- Cheryl Pearson-Fields, M.P.H.: The White Paper is available on their site as well.
On Wednesday, November 21, 2001, our Ask-the-Expert Online Conference was called Lesbians and Breast Cancer. Lisa Weissmann, M.D., Cheryl Pearson-Fields, M.P.H., and Marisa Weiss, M.D. answered your questions about being gay and having breast cancer.
The materials presented in these conferences do not necessarily reflect the views of breastcancer.org. A qualified healthcare professional should be consulted before using any therapeutic product or regimen discussed. All readers should verify all information and data before employing any therapies described here.
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Lisa Weissmann, M.D. is an attending physician at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, dedicated to breast cancer care, with an appointment at Harvard Medical School.
Marisa Weiss, M.D. is a radiation oncologist specializing in breast cancer and the founder, president, and guiding force behind Breastcancer.org.
