• L-HEALTH is a European consortium which seeks to promote excellent clinical practice for all the people, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity
• Friday, April 26 is Lesbian Visibility Day

EL*C joins the Institut d’Investigació en Atenció Primària Jordi Gol (IDIAPJGol), which is coordinating the L-HEALTH project, a European-wide initiative whose main objective is to identify the health inequalities suffered by lesbians in the primary care services. The project is promoted by a consortium with the same name made up of five entities, including research centres, non-profit organizations and lesbian associations. This week, they have met at the headquarters of the IDIAPJGol to start the project.

The starting point of L-HEALTH is to build a database of lesbians treated in primary care services, given that this information is not collected in the documentary systems used to record the population’s clinical information. Subsequently, the health status of the lesbians included in the database will be compared with a random sample of the general population. The second objective of the project is to find out the lack of knowledge and the attitudes of the primary care professionals when it comes to caring for lesbian women.

The study uses a qualitative methodology that aims to identify the health needs of lesbian women and the discrimination they have suffered in the health field by health professionals. The research also aims to explore the stereotypes, attitudes, and knowledge gaps of health professionals in the care of lesbian women.

Training program

The findings of the study will serve to design a training program for health professionals that improves their awareness and knowledge of lesbian health and promotes excellent clinical practice for all, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender or identity of gender.

L-HEALTH is a project funded by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) program of the European Union. With a budget of nearly 420,000 euros, it was launched in December 2023 and will last for two years. Its coordinators are IDIAPJGol researchers Anna Ponjoan and Constanza Jacques.

Structural masculinity

Dr. Ponjoan reports that “Lesbians have traditionally been invisible, both in clinical practice and in research, mainly because of structural masculinity and lesbophobia.” In this sense, L-HEALTH “intends to contribute to reducing stigma and discrimination, which are still present in primary care teams, where the heteronormativity of patients is assumed”.

In addition to the IDIAPJGol, the L-HEALTH consortium is participated by the Biomedical Research Institute of Girona (IDIBGI), the Public Health Agency of Barcelona (ASPB), the Spanish NGO SIDA Studi, dedicated to the promotion of sexual health, and the intersectional lesbian and feminist network EL*C.

Kick off

The project started with a first face-to-face meeting that has taken place at the IDIAPJGol headquarters on Monday, April 22. This meeting has coincided with Lesbian Visibility Week, which will culminate on April 26 with the celebration of Lesbian Visibility Day.

During this first meeting, the five partners presented the goals of the project and established its scope and planning.