In addition to the methodological challenges to conducting research on lesbian health, the committee identified several contextual factors that researchers must also overcome. For example, researchers studying lesbian health may experience discrimination because of the stigma associated with this population. Researchers must also establish ties with the lesbian community in order to conduct studies. Pervasive stereotypes about lesbian life, coupled with the limited visibility of this community, create the risk that researchers who fail to familiarize themselves with the community will misinterpret or misunderstand the implications of their results. Research on controversial or sensitive topics such as sexual behavior, sexual orientation, or drug use is usually politically sensitive, and researchers interested in doing wide-scale studies of sexual behaviors often face political challenges to the conduct of such research.
Ethical issues are also extremely important to lesbian health research.
Participating in research brings potential risks for lesbians both as individual research participants and as lesbians. The increased need to protect confidentiality arises both because lesbians are often stigmatized and because some same-sex behaviors are illegal in some jurisdictions. The committee acknowledges these potential risks, but it also believes that significant benefits can accrue to all women from studies of lesbian health, provided that individual rights are carefully protected. These benefits include identifying areas of increased risk that need attention and identifying gaps in health care services, as well as increasing understanding of the negative impact of homophobia on health. Copyright 1999 by the National Academy of Sciences.