Lesbians in the UK in 2024: What do we know?

The Lesbian Project is delighted to publish the sixth of six reviews of evidence about lesbian wellbeing by researchers Matilda Gosling and Diane Stoianov.

In what we believe to be a unique project of its kind, these researchers have reviewed hundreds of existing pieces of publicly available research in order to pull out information about lesbian wellbeing in the UK and beyond, building a picture of what is already known or hypothesised as well as where the gaps are.

The result is a fascinating series on life for lesbians today; but one which also indicates where future research is needed, as well as illuminating some important methodological issues hampering robust findings in research on lesbians specifically.

Health

The sixth of our reviews covers health.  We found evidence that, for instance:

• Lesbians’ health outcomes are not as negative as is commonly assumed; in some cases, they fare better than heterosexual women, and health outcomes (and, separately, drug and alcohol statistics) are more positive when lesbians are defined by attraction or behaviour, rather than identity.

• Health differences between lesbians and other women in most areas are uncertain due to poor study design, small sample sizes, and definitional problems. An exception to this is the finding that lesbians tend to have higher rates of asthma than heterosexual women, which has been replicated across multiple studies. Lesbians also smoke more than heterosexual women.

• Mental health is worse in lesbians who have not publicly disclosed their sexual orientation.

• Lesbians and healthcare providers perceive that they have fewer sexual health risks than they do – there are plenty of STIs that can be passed between women, and many lesbians have previously had sex with men.

• Lesbians are not getting enough STI or cervical cancer screening, and young lesbians are not getting vaccinated in sufficiently high numbers against HPV.

Limitations in existing research

Alongside our reviews, we are also publishing a Research Overview, detailing the approach taken by our researchers in compiling the evidence reviews and discussing important limitations they discovered on the robustness of research findings. This document is written to be read alongside our evidence reviews.

As the researchers conclude: “Even the highest-quality evidence – systematic reviews and meta-analyses – are often poor quality when they summarise data about lesbians, due to problems with the underlying studies that inform them.”

They identify several large issues with methodology, quality, and evidence gaps, meaning that it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about lesbians in the UK in many areas.

In future work, the Lesbian Project intends to lobby for better evidence-gathering about lesbian life, as well as commissioning independent research of its own (subject to funding).