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Loading ...Tips on safer sex for lesbians and bisexual women
Ask anyone in the LGBTQ community about safe sex, STD prevention and risks of HIV/AIDS, and you’ll notice that the conversation usually shifts to gay male-to-male sex.
There are no hard numbers. But experts say it may be more common than anecdotal evidence suggests. Because you may not know whether your sexual partner ever has had unprotected sex with a man, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Women who have slept with men “puts them at risk for STDs,” said Jill Dispenza, Director, HIV/STD Hotline and HIV Testing & Prevention at Chicago’s LGBTQ Center on Halsted. “A lot of the issue, too, is that women who have sex with women, when they do have sex with a man, that partner is usually bisexual or even gay, just because of the circles they’re in—so that can put them at greater risk.”
According to a 2003 study assessing the risk of perception of a sample of self-defined lesbians, “lesbians believe that if they are at no or low-risk for contracting HIV, the benefits of engaging in safer sex practices would be minimal.”
But because behavior of lesbian-identified women varies, a perceived low-risk for HIV infection may actually increase the risk, because women don’t take proper precautions. For example, does your sexual partner engage in unprotected sex with male partners, or have a problem with drugs or alcohol, which might lead to fewer sexual precautions (or HIV transmission, if they use intravenous drugs)? You might not know.
With this knowledge in mind, how can lesbians stay safe? And what STDs are we at risk for?
Next page: The STDs lesbians should be careful of
There is some good information in this article, but also a significant error. The LGBT Community Services Center in NYC is not a medical clinic. Our local LGBTQ medical clinic (and my gynecologist’s home base) is the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, located on West 18th Street in Chelsea.
It is highly irresponsible to promote the use of Merck’s vaccination. Neither the human toll or scientific proof of effectiveness is known, and until then it’s just another pharmaceutical experiment using fearful women as guinea pigs.
I can’t believe the venom that people within the LGBTQ community have towards eachother. Its all about equality, that people have the right to be themselves and to love the person that they fall for irrespective of gender, race, disability, age or any other irrelevant factor like whether they want to wear makeup or not. Of course lesbians and bisexual people have something in common, they are people. They are sexual minorities. Why would we not want to fight discrimination in all its biggotted forms together, homophobia, biphobia, rasism, sexism. Why would we not want solidarity where we could find it? The truth of the matter is that anyone that discriminates against another person on the basis of their sexual orientation is a biggot. Whether that person is lesbian identified discriminating against a bisexual woman or a straight person discriminating against anyone that engages in homosexual contact. We need to challenge biggotry wherever we find it and we should start in the LGBTQ community itself.
The article was lame. Lesbian sex, gay sex, and straight sex are different. Bisexuals can and will sleep with anyone.
I would not want to be in a reltionship with someone I could not satisfy and worry that they are getting some on the side. A Real Lesbian does Not have sex with men after they come out.
I know a few lesbians who have had or do at times have sex with men. But most I know have not or do not and never will. What I am most upset with is the hatered inside the LGBT community towards each other. So many lesbians hating bisexuals, so many gay men hating bisexuals. Then we have the lesbians, gays and bisexuals teaming up on transexuals. The LGBT community does not sound like much of a community.
Of course a man is going to try to tell me that a lesbian does sleep with men. It’s too funny.
A lesbian means… read closely… means… Wait for it…
No penis in the vagina.
Does that hurt your little guy’s feelings? too bad.
Not all women want men, even some breeder women don’t even like your penis.
A bisexual and a lesbian have nothing in common. There is no commonality in the struggle. It’s ridiculous that I should have to stand up for a bisexual when I want no part of their disgusting behavior.
FYI I am a lesbian. But I love my bisexual sisters and brothers. Sorry Alice if you felt bad after visiting this page.
I think it is horrible that people are saying anything rude about bisexuals. Have we learned nothing through our own experiences with discrimination?
It’s true. I stay the fuck away from bisexual women because I refuse to put myself in a situation where I might possibly pick up a “gift” from one of her male partners.
What a disappointing article. I learned very little about the actual risks of sexual activities, but I did read that us bisexual women contaminate the lesbian community with our nasty breeder diseases.
“Menstruator Said: This article is really funny.
“How many lesbians really only sleep with women?”
How about all of them? Lesbians don’t have husbands or sleep with men. That’s for the people who are bisexual. This article is mindless and clearly written by a breeder.”
Dear Menstruator:
how about before they admit or understand they are lesbian? my wife has had sex with plenty of men, while i never got past kissing one. just like gay men may or may not have slept with women before or even after they came out.
This article is horrendously written and factually incorrect. Two cases in point regarding medical facts:
1) “But in order to get a pap smear or vaccinations of any kind, you’ve got to visit the gynecologist.” Wrong. Any family practice doctor does Paps and offers Gardasil. Many internists also do Paps regularly.
2) Chlamydia pneumioniae causes a lingering cough (walking pneumonia), not genital infections. Chlamydia trachomatis is the offending bacteria in sexually transmitted oral or genital chlaymdia. Oral chlamydia is almost always asymptomatic while genital chlamydia can be symptomatic or asymptomatic.
Alicia Eler, be responsible for what you publish and fact-check your future health articles with medical professionals prior to publication.
Alas for Mestruator, identity does not necessarily equal behaviour.
Studies of over a thousand women in both the UK and Australia show significant proportions of lesbian-identified women have been sexual with men in the past year. (Over their lifetimes, it’s over 90%.)
Amusingly, the Australian study compared the women to straight women and found that even the women who had only had sex with other women in the past year still had a higher average number of lifetime male partners and were twice as likely to report having had over fifty.
This article is really funny.
“How many lesbians really only sleep with women?”
How about all of them? Lesbians don’t have husbands or sleep with men. That’s for the people who are bisexual. This article is mindless and clearly written by a breeder.