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BY JENN BAUDREAU

esbians often hear that
we are at a higher risk
or breast cancer than all

women. The problem isn’t T
being a lesbian; it’s the actual
and perceivedediscrimination
by hospitals, doctors, and other
health care agencies.
According to The Mautner
Project, a national lesbian
health organization based in
Washington, DC, “Lesbians are
likely to receive substandard
care, or remain silent about
important health issues they
fear may lead to stigmatiza—
tion.” Early detection increases
the chance of surviving breast
cancer, but the Mautner Project
cites that 50 percent of lesbians
studied did notreceive a clini-

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year, Vlheféias the fiaflfififil

average that includes hetero-

sexual women is 25 percent.
There are other risk factors,

. but they apply as much to all

women as to lesbians: increas-
ing age, family history of
breast cancer, previous abnor-
mal biopsies, radiation expo-
sure, early menstruation/late '
menopause, hormone replace-
ment therapy for more than 5
years, not having biological
children, or having the first
child after age 30, lack of
physical activity, being over-
weight, diet low in fruits and
vegetables and high in saturat-
ed fats, and high alcohol con-
sumption. The factors are listed
in the brochure “Busting Out: '
Breast Health for Lesbian &
Bisexual Women,” published
by the Sherboume Health
Center in Toronto, Canada.

So how do lesbians with
breast cancer in Vermont fit
into these realities? Of course,

 

 

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every woman’s experience
with-cancer is vastly different,
but this article examines the
cancer experiences of three
Vermont lesbians to learn how
cancer changed their lives, and
how being a lesbian _affected '
their experience.

community support:
Roz

In 1994 Roz Grossman was
washing herself when she dis-
covered a lump in her right
breast. Her family had no his-
tory of breast cancer and she

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didn’t have any other risk fac-
tors. She was treated with a
lumpectomy, radiation, and a
drug called tamoxifen. Then,
three years ago, she discovered
she had lymphoma. She was

out of work for six months get- I"

ting chemotherapy, and is now
getting a new type of therapy
called rituxin, which she
describes as “state of the 
Over the course of these

treatments and extensive hospi-
tal and doctor visits, Grossman
and her partner Diana ,
Carminatti were fortunate to

have a mostly positive experi-

ence as a lesbian couple within

the health care system.
“Except for the very first
doctor way back when I was
first diagnosed with breast can-
cer who didn’t treat me very.
well,” Grossman says, “I’ve ,
never had any problems or dis-
crimination being a lesbian. All
subsequent doctors have been
Very open and good about talk-

> ing to both of us and including

Diana.”
When asked how being a
lesbian affected her cancer

 

  
 

experience, Grossman’s first

; reaction was to say that it

didn’t have much of an effect
at all. She spoke instead of the
profound ways that cancer
affected her as a woman that
were not lesbian—specif1c.

“It made me wake up and

, ask deep questions,” she says,

“What do I believe in? What
do I want to do with my life?
Where do I want to live? And
then I made some changes.”

Then she thought of another
important way that being a les-
bian had a profound impact on
her experience.

“At first I thought that being.
a lesbian hasn’t affected me,
but then I thought that’s not
necessarily true, because the
support network I have is a les-

‘ bian community. That doesn’t

mean that people at work and

j my family haven’t been
extremely supportive — they
.  have ’—-;but thecore community

who has stood by me has been
a lesbian community.”

Outrageous Doctors:
Patricia
Patricia Fontaine feels differ-

ently about the medical profes- _

sionals she dealt with.
Fontaine has had a lot of can-
cerexperience over the years,
first": diagnosed with breast
cancer'in her left breast in -
1995, with several recurrences
in her lymph nodes, salivary

' glands, and then her right

breast. At first she tried to
avoid toxic treatments and she
had a mastectomy of her left
breast. When the cancer
returned in her lymph nodes
three years later, she “made
peace” with treatment and
underwent six months of
chemotherapy and then six

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