Health related behaviors and cancer screening of lesbians: results from the Boston Lesbian Health Project

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present data on lesbian health-related and cancer screening behavior. This is an area in which not a great deal of data exist and which is particularly interesting in view of previous data suggesting that lesbians do not seek routine services because of a fear of homophobia. This paper discusses a portion of a larger survey completed by a national community-based lesbian sample. The results show that the lesbians in this sample have healthy behaviors in general and utilize routine health screening. There is some indication that alcohol use is heavier in this sample than among women in general, an area that warrants further investigation.