TY - JOUR AU - Marrazzo, Jeanne M. T1 - Barriers to Infectious Disease Care among Lesbians T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2004 VL - 10 IS - 11 SP - 1974 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Despite the considerable number of women in the United States who identify as lesbian, few data exist that address lesbians’ health needs. The Institute of Medicine emphasized that data on sexually transmitted infections, Pap smear screening, and cervical dysplasia among lesbians were needed to guide clinical practice, policy development, and patient education. Use of surveillance data for this purpose is limited because risk classifications exclude same-gender sex among women or subsume it under behaviors considered as higher risk. However, sexual transmission of human papillomavirus, HIV, Treponema pallidum, and Trichomonas vaginalis between women has been reported. Data indicate that lesbians receive routine Pap smear screening less frequently than is optimal. Moreover, lesbians commonly report previous pregnancy, induced abortion, and hormonal contraceptive use. Education of lesbians and their care providers should counter assumptions that sex between women confers no risk of transmission of sexually transmitted infections, and lesbians should receive Pap smears according to current guidelines. KW - lesbian KW - bisexual KW - homosexuality KW - infectious disease KW - access KW - screening KW - Pap smear KW - sexually transmitted disease KW - United States DO - 10.3201/eid1011.040467 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/10/11/04-0467_article ER - End of Reference