Present and future risks: gay genes, abortion, and breast cancer punctuate a gathering of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

Gay genes, abortion, and breast cancer punctuate a gathering of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association 

Confirming a longtime suspicion, a study released in August shows for the first time that lesbians do indeed face a greater risk for breast cancer than heterosexual women. San Francisco researchers Suzanne Dibble and Stephanie Roberts analyzed data from the medical charts of 1,019 low-income women receiving medical care at San Francisco's Lyon-Martin Women's Health Clinic. They found that the 433 lesbians in the study had a higher overall risk for breast cancer because they had fewer pregnancies and greater body mass indices than their heterosexual counterparts," Dibble said. All three of these characteristics, Roberts noted, have previously been identified as risk factors for breast cancer.

The study, funded by the California Breast Cancer Research Program, was a review of the charts of women age 35 or older who were treated at the clinic from 1995 through 1997. The actual cases of breast cancer among the women was low: five cases among the lesbians and three among the heterosexual women.

Dibble and Roberts presented their findings at the 16th annual meeting of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, held August 27-29 in Chicago. About 500 physicians attended the medical conference, which focused on lifestyle issues.

Legal and medical ethicist Aaron Greenberg created the greatest sensation at the event with a presentation asserting that if scientists should someday succeed in identifying a "gay gene," then parents should have the right to abort or attempt to change a gay fetus. "Avoiding a homosexual child by employing morally acceptable means is not wrong," Greenberg, who described himself as "pro-gay," told a squirming audience. "Parents should have the freedom to have heterosexual children if they so choose."