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On the Record A helping hand for LBT cancer patients By Christopher Murray
As the program coordinator of the Lesbian Cancer Initiative (LCI) at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, Moldow counsels women facing a frightening diagnosis, runs support groups for lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women with cancer and their caregivers, and raises awareness in the community about cancer risks. Moldow has been a social worker for 15 years, and a practicing acupuncturist for the past four, but the work at LCI is personal for her, too, having been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in 2003 and spoken on a survivors’ panel at the Lesbian Cancer Initiative’s second annual large community event, “The C Word,” in 2005. The LCI is a Center CARE program at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center that offers a continuum of cancer-related services to lesbians, bisexual women, and transgendered people. We also do outreach and education programs and offer training in LBT cultural competency to mainstream cancer service agencies and medical providers. We’re trying to reach out to all LBT women, particularly those who may not typically be healthcare consumers for a variety of reasons including fears of discrimination, actual past experiences of discrimination, or lack of insurance. It will take place at the LGBT Community Center and will feature information about cancer screening and prevention, but will also have a much more broad focus on medical issues concerning all LBT folks including on-site blood pressure and cholesterol screening and information about health insurance options. There will also be short massage and reiki sessions for participants as well as live music with New York’s own KJ Denhart, snacks, and some fun door prizes to keep things light and interesting. There isn’t enough good research out there to answer this question at this time. What we do know is that LBT women may be at greater risk for cancer so lesbian-related cancer projects tend to focus on education about risk factors, screening, prevention and wellness, and sensitizing the medical and social services community to the real-life issues and concerns of our constituents in order to minimize incidence of discrimination and improve our healthcare and support experiences. Increased risk factors, incidentally, include the increased likelihood of our constituency tending to be more overweight, smoke and drink more alcohol, and less likely to use oral contraceptives — which are shown to have some ability to prevent cancer — to bear children, to breastfeed, and to maintain regular healthcare. We also have worked with the Gender Identity Project at the Center to develop materials regarding risk factors and prevention strategies for transgendered people. I don’t think this is a black and white issue. Women’s cancers and AIDS have manifested very differently in our community, raising different issues and the need for different kinds of response. We have certainly addressed HIV/AIDS in a more systematic and concentrated way, but that reflects how AIDS hit us when it did. Regarding lesbians and cancer, we do need to bring the issues out of the closet and uncloak them from their shroud of secrecy and hushed whispers. We need to reach out, to continue to organize and make LBT women’s health more of a priority. In general, as a society, we could do with being more engaged with care and wellness of our human citizens and our planet. We live with so many obstacles to wellness and prevention. Cancer, itself, doesn’t have gaydar. Cancer is cancer once it begins to proliferate in a woman’s body. Risk factors, again, are important. Relationships with healthcare providers who demonstrate acceptance of the full truth of our lives and our chosen/created families are important. Cancer doesn’t give us much time, however, to find and develop the most affirmative relationships we could have, so this often doesn’t play out in our favor. We may have to settle for the best we can find when we’re in the thick of it and lock a part of ourselves away if the safety or perceived safety just isn’t there. I don’t think straight women face these concerns. Issues around body image and parenting after cancer also play out differently for lesbians and straight women. It’s multifaceted. My father died of cancer when I was an infant and he was very young. I was diagnosed and underwent surgery and traditional forms of cancer treatment not so very long ago. As a cancer survivor, I actively utilized cancer supports and, in so doing, met many other survivors and people living with cancer, some of whom I’ve lost at this point. I’ve learned about a lot of the relevant issues not just pertaining to LBT women, and seen a broad range of differences in how cancer and cancer treatment manifest. Like many who study acupuncture and Chinese medicine, I had some personal positive experiences in my own treatment with this branch of complementary medicine. I also found that many of the social work clients I worked with had multiple medical ailments and pains that contributed to their depression and anxiety. I became interested in the body-mind connection and the capacity for acupuncture to energetically address things that words could not. I wanted to do work that was more physical, that didn’t require I sit in a chair, and I found the theory to be fascinating. I can only speculate as to why I got cancer, which is something many of us do at least once, but will likely never know for sure. I’ve learned that there are things I do that enhance or detract from my own wellness and while I can’t change the past, I can maximize the choices I make that are, or that I believe are, pro-wellness, and I try to hold this perspective out for others in my work at the same time as I attempt to help remove self-blame from the discussion. Many cancer survivors will tell you that nobody really understands what it’s like to have cancer except for someone who has also been through it. I find that my knowing in this respect makes a big difference to many people that I work with, though it’s not necessarily important to everyone. Same goes for my being a member of the LGBT community. Actually, I don’t focus on cancer all the time. I did when I was undergoing treatment and had to count on the hope held out by other survivors that a day would come where my first waking thought and my last one before bed wouldn’t have to do with cancer. It was a huge relief to get to the other side and I count my blessings that I was fortunate enough to make it there. I believe wholeheartedly in creating fun, joy, and fulfilling connection with others in whatever big and little ways we can figure out to do.
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At 41, Cristina Moldow is, in many ways, an almost stereotypical New York lesbian. She lives in Park Slope and plays for the Jaguars team in the Prospect Park Women’s Softball League. But Moldow is also a healer, a social worker, and an acupuncturist, who has spent a significant amount of her professional and personal life fighting a little talked about aspect of lesbian life — cancer.
