Lesbian Women and Sexual Health
Lesbian Women and Sexual Health

Author: R Dennis Shelby

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-07-16

Total Pages: 142

ISBN-13: 1317718194

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Interviewer: Where did you find out how to have safe lesbian sex? Val: I found out in jail. Why do so many lesbian women engage in sexual behavior that puts their health, even their lives, at risk? Many know they're at risk, yet somehow feel safe enough to behave as if there is no reason to practice safe sex. Lesbian Women and Sexual Health: The Social Construction of Risk and Susceptibility examines how lesbian women perceive their level of risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). It describes how their perceptions of risk and susceptibility are shaped by factors such as sexual identity, cultural themes, and community knowledge - and how those perceptions impact on the very real HIV/STI risks that lesbian women face. The genesis of Lesbian Women and Sexual Health: The Social Construction of Risk and Susceptibility lies in Kathleen Dolan’s exploratory study of this under-researched area, in which 162 structured interviews and 70 in-depth interviews were conducted with women who self-identify as lesbians. What these women have to say will inform, educate, and probably surprise you. Tables and figures make complex data easy to access and understand. Lesbian women construct and label their identities and actions in complex ways that may lead to risky behavior. In the words of the women surveyed—and in Dr. Dolan’s insightful commentary—this book explores the ways in which lesbian women construct their perceptions of risk and susceptibility to seek answers to questions that include: Do many lesbian women see themselves, to an extent, as immune to HIV contraction? How does their self-constructed sense of risk and susceptibility lead to making dangerous choices? Why, in spite of their professed willingness to engage in protective actions, do many lesbians not actually do so? Why do many lesbian women, and some of the health care professionals who serve them, feel that pap smears are not necessary for women who have sex only with other women—and what are the consequences of this opinion? What is the relationship between drug/alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors in lesbian women? Lesbian Women and Sexual Health: The Social Construction of Risk and Susceptibility is an important resource for women’s/lesbian health advocates, health care professionals, and courses in gay/women’s/medical studies. It addresses gaps in the existing research to enhance our understanding of the physical and mental health status of lesbian women, of risk factors and protective actions regarding HIV and STIs, and of the conditions for which protective actions actually reduce risk. Use it to update your knowledge of this under-studied area at the intersection of physical, emotional, and sexual health.

College Students' Knowledge of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Willingness to Participate in Screening
College Students' Knowledge of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Willingness to Participate in Screening

Author: Alison Campbell

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13:

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An estimated 1.2 million adults and adolescents are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States and approximately 50,000 are newly infected each year. If HIV is left untreated, the disease will eventually progress to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). HIV continues to be a concern in public health, yet the public perception about the severity of the HIV epidemic has declined in recent years. Although research suggests that college students are highly educated on modes of transmission for HIV, they continue to practice risky sexual behaviors that will increase their risk of HIV transmission. The researchers in this study utilized a descriptive, non-experimental, quantitative design to determine college students' knowledge regarding HIV and their willingness to be tested for HIV. Data analysis revealed that college age students were not knowledgeable of HIV. Findings revealed a great need for further education regarding HIV knowledge and HIV testing among college students in the southeastern United States.

Women and AIDS
Women and AIDS

Author: Ellen Cole

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-01-14

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 1317712439

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For many women, the advice “Use a condom!” is not enough to help protect them from HIV infection. As Women and AIDS reveals, “negotiating” safer sex practices is a very complex issue for women who are involved in relationships where they do not enjoy physical, social, or economic equality. The book’s authors maintain that the key to curbing the spread of HIV and to caring for those already infected--is communication. Women and AIDS is the first volume to address HIV/AIDS and women from a communication perspective. This helpful guidebook addresses how women might achieve safer sexual and drug injection practices with partners, but it also explores women’s negotiation of the health care system as patients, medical research subjects, and caregivers. It challenges traditional assumptions about the relationship between care providers and patients and the meaning of patient compliance and raises important questions about gender, race, and class that are exacerbated by the epidemic. Designed to ground interventions in the realities of women’s lives, Women and AIDS discusses what women can do to get around communication and health care obstacles. To this end, you will learn about: using the media for HIV-related social action and to promote women’s views of HIV and sexuality prison health care for HIV-positive women cultural constructions of sex and drug sharing in a variety of communities long-term changes that will empower women delivering an HIV-positive diagnosis to patients gender roles and caregiving the language we use to talk about “Third World” women and “Asian AIDS” women AIDS filmmakers/videographers For the benefit of AIDS activists, health care providers, and counselors, Women and AIDS discusses women and their communication and awareness from virtually every angle. This book analyzes situations where communication breaks down--from the woman who can’t openly discuss safe sex with her partner, to the drunk college student who “hooks up,” to the doctor who gives an HIV-positive diagnosis without compassion--and offers communication solutions. This will help women avoid such risks, establish communication and safety in their lives, and construct meaningful roles in relationship to HIV/AIDS.

The Hidden Epidemic
The Hidden Epidemic

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1997-03-28

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 030917547X

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The United States has the dubious distinction of leading the industrialized world in overall rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), with 12 million new cases annually. About 3 million teenagers contract an STD each year, and many will have long-term health problems as a result. Women and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to these diseases and their health consequences. In addition, STDs increase the risk of HIV transmission. The Hidden Epidemic examines the scope of sexually transmitted infections in the United States and provides a critical assessment of the nation's response to this public health crisis. The book identifies the components of an effective national STD prevention and control strategy and provides direction for an appropriate response to the epidemic. Recommendations for improving public awareness and education, reaching women and adolescents, integrating public health programs, training health care professionals, modifying messages from the mass media, and supporting future research are included. The book documents the epidemiological dimensions and the economic and social costs of STDs, describing them as "a secret epidemic" with tremendous consequences. The committee frankly discusses the confusing and often hypocritical nature of how Americans deal with issues regarding sexualityâ€"the conflicting messages conveyed in the mass media, the reluctance to promote condom use, the controversy over sex education for teenagers, and the issue of personal blame. The Hidden Epidemic identifies key elements of effective, culturally appropriate programs to promote healthy behavior by adolescents and adults. It examines the problem of fragmentation in STD services and provides examples of communities that have formed partnerships between stakeholders to develop integrated approaches. The committee's recommendations provide a practical foundation on which to build an integrated national program to help young people and adults develop habits of healthy sexuality. The Hidden Epidemic was written for both health care professionals and people without a medical background and will be indispensable to anyone concerned about preventing and controlling STDs.

Sex at Risk
Sex at Risk

Author: Stuart Brody

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-03-31

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 1000947637

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Politicians, interest groups, and the mass media often answer questions about how AIDS is sexually transmitted as if heterosexual vaginal intercourse is a high-risk activity. When it comes to understanding how AIDS is transmitted, and formulating effective policy to deal with the spread of AIDS, America remains confused. What Brody calls ideological knowledge about AIDS is far more likely to filter through society than scientific knowledge. Sex at Risk is a comprehensive review of the scientific literature dealing with. the transmission of AIDS. Like Michael Fumento's The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS, it exposes the mythology surrounding vaginal intercourse and AIDS transmission, Brody also looks deeply at reasons that fear of AIDS transmission from vaginal intercourse has spread so widely and profoundly, He addresses serious methodological problems in AIDS/HIV behavioral research, as well as tendentious political correctness that has done a disservice to science. Sex at Risk also comprehensively reviews the international research literature on correlates of lifetime number of sexual partners and frequency of sexual intercourse. Among topics covered are: relationships between lifetime number of sexual partners and mental health, explanations for important differences between intercourse and masturbation, the possible association of frequency with healthy functioning, and correlations between frequency and national development. Brody concludes by discussing what AIDS reveals about how politically correct thought impedes scientific progress, when taboo themes, regardless of their validity, cannot be pursued, Sex at Risk is factually grounded, yet controversial. Brody raises critical questions about much of what we have learned about AIDS from popular and professional publications, "soft scientists," and public health campaigns. It will be of interest to medical doctors, clinicians, and those interested in the sociology and psychology of knowledge.