does the lack of research into lesbian and women's health bother anyone else?

The lack of research really bothers me. I took a Human Sexuality class and there was very little information regarding lesbians. Even Kinsey focused most of his research on white male sexuality. According to the movie on Kinsey, he wanted to do another research project on (white) women's sexuality but it was viewed as too controversial for the time.

There has been more research completed on men's health than on women's health historically and there is even less research completed on gay women's health. Non-straight women are one of the least researched groups among the different sexualities. It does bother me a lot. Men's health has always been viewed as more important.

I've also tried to look into STD and cancer rates for lesbians but the data is not sufficient. Data has not been completed and it's quite sad. Like, why doesn't society talk about the fact that lesbians are more susceptible for ovarian cancer, why is this, and how do we prevent ourselves from getting it? Why does no one care that more lesbians are smoking than other sexualities and why don't we do more research into breast cancer among lesbians? And HIV? STDs? Obesity? It seems like scientific researchers are either unable to gather appropriate data or don't see lesbians as an important group to study. Maybe I'm being pessimistic and there are researchers right now doing the work. Main thing is... we need to be educated and scientists need to care.

I think we have to push for more research to be completed or do the research ourselves because society is set up to care about those in power: white heterosexual cis-gendered men.

 

(Just my opinion and personal experience)

My impression of the gay community leaves lesbians in an odd place, to the point where I'm too ashamed to admit to even myself that I am one. People think it's easier for women to come out as lesbians because the general population is more comfortable with its sexual component.
It's generally understood that women are more fluid with their sexuality and more prone to experiment, which makes me feel like my sexuality is less legitimate. I'm not going through a phase or experimenting in college.
I don't mean to generalize, but it seems that gay men are told less often that they are just "going through a phase." I know the alternatives aren't any better, but no one questions that you're gay. I've seen countless studies on the brains of gay males to support that homosexuality is biological, but I haven't seen any studies like this for lesbians.

I don't mean for any of these comments to offend anyone. Every individual case is different, and coming out isn't easy for anyone. I guess I feel like maybe I'd be a bit more comfortable with telling people if I didn't feel like it was my fault, or that I could change.

 

It bothers me and I'm male.

But then again there's a lack of research on bisexuality in general, so I sympathize. Research is a tool that can legitimize a discriminated group.

 

I think there's very little research into the LGBT community in general. I mean, they still think that trans women and gay men are the same thing.

But in all seriousness, this really bothered me in health classes too. I actually asked my teacher about this in high school and he didn't really know. Most health teachers are physical education teachers who barely know how to read, let alone teach a class that should be based in science. Instead, health classes are based on, at best, anecdotal evidence and superstitions that somewhat resemble a logical conclusions.

When you try to apply any research to what they teach you in health, you usually discover that it's all a lot of scare tactics and hocus pocus to scare you into not having sex. Not like kids ever have any real genuine concerns. My school never even taught us about birth control. Instead, they showed us a bunch of disgusting pictures of STD victims and said, "Don't have sex or this will happen to you!"

 

One of the barriers to research on lesbians has been the perception that lesbians were not as promiscuous or sexually active as other populations. While there may have been some truth to that in the past, it is not a valid assumption today. Young lesbian and bisexual women are as sexually active as their straight counterparts.

There's been a reduction in studies of sexuality in general. Most of what is being funded these days either is looking at epidemiology (primarily STD rates) or pharmacology (usually funded by drug companies).

It is an area that is very needing of study and perhaps discussions like these may inspire someone in graduate school to make this the subject of their thesis or dissertation?

 

I'm 100% behind you Caoimhe. It's a disgrace. In my opinion sample sizes on research like this needs to expand to include numerous groups of people.

How does an Asian male compare to a Black male when it comes to the rates of Alzheimer's disease? What about gay Asian males compared to straight Asian males? What about lesbian Asian women compared to white straight men? What about black lesbian women compared to white gay men? What about black gay men between the ages of 35-60 compared to gay Native American men between the ages of 35-60?

Having a larger sampling of people from diverse groups not only helps us provide more specialized medical care, but also gives greater insight into how diseases and the like function. It's a win-win situation for everyone involved.

 

This would definitely be a great topic for a graduate level thesis! It does bother me that there is little information about health disparities in the LGBT community in general. Specifically among women and transgendered individuals. Men have often been involved in studies as you have stated in your first post. Just recently has it come to the attention of the Healthcare community that testing should be performed on women especially considering the fact that women have different symptoms that vary from men in certain diseases. For example in a Myocardial Infarction (MI or heart attack) women may have jaw pain or epigastric pain (pain similar to heartburn) thus making it difficult for women to be properly diagnosed with having a MI because research has only been performed on males until recently which indicates that chest pain radiating to the arm is the ONLY symptom associated with pain from an MI (note the sarcasm).

It amazes me that there is a lack of information and epidemiology related to lesbians and bisexual women in regards to women's health. I say this because women are known to be asymptomatic with many types of STIs. It very curious that there is paucity in research on such a topic when it affects a growing portion of the population. Overall there is a discrepancy in the research about the LGBT community in regards to health care concerns which is absolutely absurd in my opinion. Anyway, enough with the ranting about how there is a lack of research. Maybe when I am done with nursing school, I will delve into the complexities of this problem but that's after I do research on the misdiagnosis of ADHD and the misdiagnosis of withdrawal (My professor wants me to do research on this one we discovered there is a lack of information about this topic).