Women’s Health: Paying Attention to an Invisible Group

By Karen Roush, MS, RN, FNP-C, AJN clinical managing editor

My sister Ellen is getting married in two weeks, so last Sunday I threw a surprise bridal shower. We had all the traditional trappings—flowers and favors and (much to another sister’s chagrin) a shower game and prizes. The only thing not traditional: at this shower there were two brides, my sister and her fiancée, Pat.

After years of standing by invisible while sisters and brothers married, danced with their partners at each other’s weddings, celebrated births and graduations, now it’s their turn. No longer on the periphery, no longer the ‘other,’ at least for this day, these few weeks, they are finally able to celebrate their love and commitment to each other just like the rest of us.

Why am I writing about this in a nursing blog? Because this invisibility, this sidelining of lesbians like my sister and her fiancée, doesn’t only affect their family life—it extends into their health care as well. Neither Ellen nor Pat ever got routine women’s health care—no Pap smears, no clinical breast exams or mammograms, no routine assessment for osteoporosis risk. They were never hooked into the health care system by reproductive health needs, contraception, chlamydia testing […]