UCLA researchers find lesbians do have some risk of AIDS infection

Tuesday, February 4, 1997

HEALTH:

Intravenous drug use, sex with men expose some to virusBy Peggy
Shen

Daily Bruin Contributor

While lesbians have generally been considered a little or
no-risk group for HIV infection, research is now suggesting
otherwise.

A number of studies in a 1996 special edition of the journal
Women’s Health: Research on Gender, Behavior, and Policy indicate
that research based solely on the biological nature of
female-to-female transmission greatly underestimates lesbians’
risks for HIV infection.

Results of the studies show that the risk of HIV transmission
via woman-to-woman contact is relatively low.

However, many lesbians and other women who have sex with women
also engage in high-risk behaviors, including the use of
intravenous drugs contaminated by the HIV virus and/or having
sexual relations with HIV-infected men, activities which account
for the vast majority of AIDS and HIV infection, according to the
studies.

Dr. Vickie Mays, a UCLA psychologist and an editor of the
special edition, said that the traditional focus on biological
issues of female-to-female transmission has muted the importance of
findings that indicate that self-identified lesbians also engage in
sex with men.

According to Mays, perceiving lesbians to be at a lower risk for
HIV infection based on their identity as gay women, rather than
their behavior, is a problem as "lesbians may have a multiplicity
of identities" which also include users of injection drugs,
crack-smokers or commercial sex workers.

"Lesbian does not equal women who only have sex with woman,"
said Dr. Susan Chu, author of one of the articles in the issue.

"A woman who identifies as a lesbian can either define herself
that way because she only has sex with women, or she can define
herself because politically she feels that way, or she can define
herself because her most important relationships are with women but
in fact, she has sex with men," she said.

Another author of several of the studies in the special issue is
Dr. Susan Cochran, a UCLA public health epidemiologist. Dr. Cochran
also emphasized the importance of recognizing the "heterogeneity"
of the lesbian population.

"One basic fact is that most lesbians have sex with men at some
point in their lives, usually early in their lives when they may be
unsure about their sexuality," said Cochran, also a professor at
the UCLA School of Public Health.

According to studies conducted by Cochran and Mays, young
lesbian and bisexual women may be at a greater risk for HIV and
other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) than their older
counterparts due to their frequently higher level of sexual
experimentation with both sexes.

Their studies also show that young lesbian and other women who
have sex with women are more likely to engage in high-risk sexual
experimentation with men because they do not yet consider
themselves to be lesbians or gay women.

Further compounding this risk is the likelihood of young
lesbians and bisexual women selecting male sexual partners from
among the population of gay men who share their social network,
according to Cochran and Mays.

"The partners tend to be the people they socialize with, which
are often young gay men," said Cochran. Since they are among those
most at risk for HIV, gay men increase the risk of HIV and STDs for
their sexual partners.

Studies in the lead article of the issue show that STDs are rare
among lesbians unless women had prior sexual relations with men,
while vaginal infections are not uncommon and can be transmitted
efficiently by female-to-female contact.

Dr. Cochran said the studies also identified risk factors for
engaging in higher risk behaviors. Predictors of heterosexual
behavior, and thus higher risk, were a bisexual rather than a
lesbian sexual orientation, a younger age, being single and less
education.

Study results linked drug use to lower educational attainment
and lower income. Finally, STDs were positively associated with a
history of drug use and sexual contact with men, the main behaviors
which put lesbians and other women who have sex with women at
higher risk for HIV infection than previously perceived.

Researchers said they hope their study results will lead to
better prevention programs and better targeting of high-risk groups
of lesbians and other WSW for HIV education.

In response to the finding that African-American women are one
of the fastest growing groups infected with AIDS, which was also
indicated by the study, the UCLA Gay and Lesbian Association is now
"trying to develop a strategy to educate African- American women,"
said Darnell Grisby, co-director of the Gay and Lesbian
Association.

According to Cochran, the knowledge from these studies will help
researchers and public health officials better educate lesbians and
other women who have sex with other women and will also allow gay
women to educate themselves and make their own decisions about HIV
prevention.

"Historically, (the lesbian population) is a community that is
often ignored," said Cochran, adding that these studies put out new
information that can help people.

"There are quite a few women that have sex with other women,"
said Chu. "We are talking about a lot of people that deserve to
have the information," she said.