Health problems of lesbian women.

Lesbians are visible to society, health care providers, and researchers as women, not as an identified sub-group of women. Lesbian invisibility contributes to their collective increased vulnerability, as evidenced by decreased societal and environmental resource availability, threats to social connectedness, and barriers in accessing health care. The factors that have led to increased vulnerability have shown up in risks of violence, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and chemical dependency among lesbians.