Lesbians in S.F. part of AIDS, insemination study

Lesbians in S.F. part of AIDS, insemination study

Cheri Pies, a queer professor and researcher, leads an investigation into 400 lesbian women who have recently been artificially inseminated to determine potential AIDS transmissions. The study intends to clarify how HIV/AIDS spreads from women to men. Using queer women volunteers and a queer women director, the Lesbian Insemination Project seeks to answer long-held questions about AIDS infection.

Peg Byron

The Washington Blade

DIGDC
https://digdc.dclibrary.org/islandora/object/dcplislandora%3A10624#page/7/mode/2up

November 15, 1985

Newspaper article

Lesbians in S.F. part of AIDS, insemination study

'The possibility of AIDS infection through artificial insemination will be assessed in a California study of 400 Lesbians who were artificially inseminated since 1980. The Lesbian Insemination Project, or LIP, is being conducted by Lesbians, according to the study's director Cheri Pies and is a joint project of the Association for Women's AIDS Research and Education (AWARE) and the University of California at Berkeley.

Four women in Australia have been reported as being infected with the AIDS virus due to insemination with infected sperm.

An Australian study, reported by the British medical journal Lancet in September, found eight women who had been inseminated with semen donated by a symptomless AIDS antibody carrier. Of those eight, four tested positive for the antibody. One of the four also had generalized, persistant lymphadenopathy, but was otherwise in good health except for occasional minor mouth ulcerations, the study said. Three years after these women had been inseminated, none of their sexual partners showed any signs of infection themselves, in spite of regular sexual contact without condoms, "highlighting the low risk of female-to-male transmission in contact to a reported rate of 70 percent antibody positivity among the wives of HTLV-III positive hemophiliacs," the study said. None of the women became pregnant as a result of receiving the infected semen.

"We don't think we will find many women who test positive [for the AIDS antibody] because insemination is not an efficient mode of transmission," said Pies.

"There is little or no blood exchanged," said Pies, "and it is not as invasive as intercourse there's no friction." Lesbians are considered good subjects for such a study because some may have deliberately chosen Gay men as their sperm donors, and they are likely to have had fewer or no sexual contacts with men which would provide other potential sources of infection.

Concern about AIDS among women has been high in the San Francisco Bay area, where a recent forum on Lesbians and AIDS drew over. 200 women. Pies, who authored Considering Parenthood; A Workbook for Lesbians, said the study's participants will be tested for the HTLY-III antibody, which has been associated with AIDS; asked about the sexual orientation of their semen donor, if known; and queried on how many times they were inseminated, and when Pies noted that on the average, a woman will use seven donations in the process of getting pregnant, since pregnancy does not usually occur with the first insemination.

"If there is a high risk in having a large number of (male] sex partners, then women should not use a large number of donors" with insemination, she said.

LIP researchers are making extensive efforts to guarantee anonymity for the study participants and will offer further testing and counselling for anyone, who tests positive. The study is scheduled to begin in the middle of-this month.
-Peg Byron