Attitudes Towards Homosexuals in Society, and Health Inequalities Regarding Lesbian Women

In today’s world, there have been changes in attitudes towards homosexuals and increases in community’s awareness of lesbians and their families, and thus homosexuality has begun to be a more acceptable lifestyle. However, when the use of preventive health services by lesbian women is compared with that by heterosexual women, it is seen that the former group still suffers significant levels of inequalities in benefiting from health care and is exposed to discrimination to a great extent. The comparison of lesbian women with heterosexual women in terms of benefiting from health services has revealed that the former group receives preventive healthcare services less, and that when they have health problems, they delay the treatment and display help-seeking behavior only when the symptoms become severe.There are several factors arising both from the health care system and from healthcare providers’ attitudes which prevent lesbian women from accessing health care services. Therefore, health workers should be trained on the problems of lesbian women. Under the guidance and support of health workers who have received the training, lesbian couples can decide on what they want to, can defend their preferences and may be more willing to receive health care.