About the Lesbians and Breast Cancer Project

The Lesbians and Breast Cancer Project was a community-based participatory study conducted in Ontario, Canada in 2003.  We interviewed twenty-six lesbians diagnosed with a ‘woman’s cancer’ (twenty-two with breast cancer, three with gynecological cancer, one with both) about their experiences of treatment, cancer care, and support, and their feelings and ideas about changes in identity, body, sexuality and relationships.

Telling other people that you have cancer is like coming out, again.  People sit there and go, "Oh my God you have cancer," like you have cooties. People back away. They still do. The other side is, [after I said I had cancer] people came forward and said, "My mother had breast cancer, my sister had breast cancer, my grandmother had breast cancer, I had uterine cancer, I didn’t tell anybody…"

 

About the Project   ||   Team & Partner Agencies   ||   Project Report