Abstract

SILBERMAN, Pedro; BUEDO, Paola E  and  BURGOS, Lucrecia M. Barriers to sexual health care in Argentina: perception of women who have sex with women. Rev. salud pública [online]. 2016, vol.18, n.1, pp.1-12. ISSN 0124-0064.  https://doi.org/10.15446/rsap.v18n1.48047.

Objective The objective is to describe the barriers to sexual health care of Women Who Have Sex with Women (WSW) in Argentina during 2013. Methods A cross-sectional, descriptive and quantitative study. An online survey was conducted using the Internet, in the period of April-July 2013, with homosexual and bisexual women over 18 living in Argentina, making use of the snowball methodology. Results A total of 161 women were surveyed. The results showed that 97.5 % had previously visited a doctor. The doctor did not ask about their sexual orientation in 82.8 % of cases. 93.6 % of the surveyed did not receive information about STDs; 83.8 % perceive little/no risk regarding STDs. 48.4 % are unaware of the methods of protection of STDs among women and 51.6 % obtained this information from websites and friends. 77.5 % reported not using protection methods. The main reasons were: stable partner, discomfort and the inability to acquire them. Discussion The results of this research allow for identifying the low perception among WSW regarding STDs, and the difficulty of approaching health professionals about this subject.

Keywords : Homosexuality; female; women's health services; reproductive health; sexually transmitted diseases; uterine cervical neoplasms/prevention and control; Argentina.

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