Lesbian and bisexual women's health.

Lesbian and bisexual women's health is a concern for many women worldwide, but the information available on the subject is not as widespread as one would hope. In June 2005, Patricia Curzi, Women's Project Coordinator at the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), issued a call for material on the ILGA website and disseminated it to LGBT and women's organisations. She reports that she was positively surprised to receive so much material: prevention campaigns, training seminars, studies, publications, articles, leaflets, postcards from countries all over the world, "some of which I would not have expected, and that challenged my own stereotypes."

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The resulting publication: Lesbian and Bisexual Women's Health: Common Concerns, Local Issues, produced by ILGA in March 2006, highlights issues that seem to be of concern for a majority of lesbian and bisexual women's organisations, such as breast and uterus cancer. Other chapters deal with putting women's health on the human rights agenda; control over women's bodies; same sex domestic violence; mental health; and sexual pleasure.

The report gives space to women in each region of the world to illustrate their initiatives and speak about a specific health issue. Some are university researchers, others activists or women's project coordinators. All of them are committed to the fight for lesbian, bisexual and - more broadly - women's rights to health and wellbeing. "I hope you will get as much inspiration and pleasure in reading the texts as I did," says Patricia Curzi, "and that you will realise that local health issues are indeed common concerns for all of us."

You can find the report at http://doc.ilga.org/ilga/publications