Being a lesbian does not directly influence the frequency of these cancers. But there are certain risk factors that are particularly prevalent among women who love women. For that reason, it’s important to be informed.
The fear of homophobic reactions or use contraception less frequently and therefore less likely to see medical professional and often hesitate to talk about their emotional or sexual lives, make Lesbian less likely other women to undergo screening examinations (mammograms or pap smears) that would allow early detection of possible breast or cervical cancer.
Social and family pressures to Lesbians can result a depression that made them pay less attention to their health, and reluctant to regularly self-examination their breast. It’s also result in overweight and overindulge in alcohol and tobacco that increases the risk of breast and cervical cancer. And also make the risk even higher, because Lesbians are less likely to have children before the age of 30.
Loving yourself as a lesbian or bisexual woman also means taking care of yourself and watching your health!
Breast Cancer
Risk factors:
Risk factors:
- Being a woman, especially if you are over 50 years old.
- Having had one or more cases of breast cancer in your family.
- Having certain non-cancerous abnormalities in your breasts.
- Not having a child or having had your first child after the age of 30.
- Menstruating before the age of 12.
- Going through menopause after the age of 52.
- Taking hormones for several years after going through menopause.
- Drinking a lot of alcoholic beverage.
- Gaining weight after menopause.
- Having sedentary lifestyle (with little sports or physical activity).
But remember: Breast Cancer often affects women who do not display any particular risk factors. Likewise, having one or more of these predispositions does not make you will automatically develop the disease.
What should I do?
- Change your lifestyle if necessary (take advantage of physical activities, avoid obesity, limit your consumption of alcohol).
- Regularly self-examine your breast from the age of 25, ideally 1 week after menstruation by paying attention to the look of both breast and watching for any changing. But remember if you find any different does not mean that you automatically have cancer, but it is still necessary to go and see your doctor
- Undergo screenings with mammograms from the age of 50 and with this X-ray of the breast allows detection of potential cancer well before they become visible palpable, which strongly increase the like hood of treating them successfully. Another advantage is, discovering cancers when they are still very small increase the like hood that the breast can be preserved.
Cervical Cancer
Risk factors:
- A chronic infection by certain strains of the Human Papiloma Virus (HPV), which is transmissible through sexual contact between women.
- The use of tobacco.
Traces of chronic HPV (or has had) sexual contact with other persons, regardless of their sexual orientation, may be a carrier of HPV. More that 50% of women “encounter” the virus over the course of their sex life.
Fortunately, the majoring of HPV viruses are incapable of developing into cancers. The typical mode transmission is direct contact with the genital organ or the mouth of infected person. Sometimes these viruses produce warts in the genital organs, the anus, or (more rarely) on the mouth. But generally, the infection goes unnoticed and spontaneously heals within two years. Since there are often no symptoms, it is impossible to say when exactly a person was infected. You can carry HPV without knowing it and without ever noticing anything abnormal.
The majority if these viruses do not heighten your risk for cancer. But it certain strains of HPV survive near the cervix, they can foster the development if cervical cancer after a number of years.
What should I do?
- Avoid smoke or stop smoking. It is generally beneficial for your health and lower your risk of developing cervical cancer.
- Undergo screenings.
- If you notice small amounts of blood at the vagina (between your periods, after menopause, or following sexual intercourse), often accompanied by painless vagina discharge, consult you doctor.
Most Important: Screening Examinations
- All women should begin screenings within a year of their first sexual encounter (whether with a man or a woman).
- After the first normal pap smear, a second smear will be done to confirm results one year later.
- If the second pap smear are also normal, additional smears will be repeated every three years, until at least the age of 65. If the routine is interrupted, it is repeated from the beginning. If an abnormality is discovered under the microscope, a second smear or another thorough examination is immediately conducted to confirm the results. If a pre-cancerous lesion (dysplasia) is discovered, a targeted treatment makes it possible to prevent it from developing into cancer. If at the beginning a cancer is discovered, thanks to the screening, the treatment will be more affective and contained since the illness has been detected at an early stage.
The examination is done by taking a smear of the cervix. The doctor removes some cells from the uterine collar with a spatula or a small brush, then examine them with a microscope. The sampling is painless and is done between periods.
The screening requires the use of speculum (the cervix is not directly accessible during an examination of the external genital organs).
Is it important to disclose my sexual orientation to my doctor?
Source: ILGA Europe
