Reproductive health history of lesbians: implications for care.
OBJECTIVE
Parity and hormonal contraceptives modify the risk of reproductive cancers and cardiovascular disease. However, clinicians may not obtain reproductive histories from patients who self-identify as lesbian. We report lifetime pregnancy-related outcomes and hormonal contraception for 392 women who reported sexual activity with another woman in the preceding year.


METHODS
Among self-referred volunteers, previous pregnancy, pregnancy outcome, contraceptive use, and sexual identity were assessed with self-administered questionnaire.


RESULTS
One in 4 subjects had been pregnant, and more than 50% of the women had used oral contraceptives (mean duration, 40 months). Sixteen percent of all subjects and 63% of those who had been pregnant previously reported having 1 or more induced abortions. The most common pregnancy outcome for women younger than 25 years was induced abortion (59% of pregnancies). Identifying as "lesbian" or "bisexual" predicted neither the duration of oral contraceptive use nor a report of induced abortion.


CONCLUSIONS
Previous pregnancy, induced abortion, and hormonal contraceptive use are common among women who report sex with women, regardless of self-identification as lesbian.
Marrazzo
Jeanne M
JM
Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washngton, USA. jmm2@u.washington.edu
Stine
Kathleen
K
D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001727:Bisexuality; D003267:Contraception / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D006801:Humans; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017584:Reproductive History; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012747:Sexual Partners; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires