Health needs of women who have sex with women: Evidence is lacking that women who have sex with women are high risk group for cancer

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7437.464

BMJ 2004;328:464 (21 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7437.464

Letter

Health needs of women who have sex with women

Evidence is lacking that women who have sex with women are high risk group for cancer

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—As pointed out by Hughes and Evans, the healthcareneeds of women who have sex with women are an underprioritisedarea of research and public attention.¹ The statement, however,that these women represent a group at greater risk of developingparticular cancers than their heterosexual counterparts lacksempirical support in the literature.

In what seems to be the only population based cohort study onthe subject, little support was found for this widely and longheld belief.² Findings among 1614 Danish women who registeredin homosexual partnerships in Denmark during 1989-97 and whowere followed up for cancer over 6656 woman years showed thatbeing part of a registered homosexual partnership is not associatedwith increased risk of cancer at any site.

Cancer risks may well differ between women who have sex withwomen who formally register their relationship and those whodo not register, as well as . . . [Full text of this article]

Morten Frisch, senior investigator

Department of Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institut, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark mfr@ssi.dk