Overview

Research in health of women who partner with women (WPW) operates in a context of multiple factors: local legislations, political pressures, community attitudes, methodological and ethical challenges in the study design and process, respondent identification issues, and funding availability. The reluctance to conduct research based on the above mentioned reasons results in lack of randomized control trials. As such, the risk of cervical cancer in WPW remains ambiguous due to the lack of data on specific aspects of its continuum. Secular trends in cervical cancer and sexuality inferences, as well as determinans and barriers in this nexus, are difficult to interpret. A meta-analysis of 73 studies of the empirical and vigorous evidence, current effort determines: (1) the risk of cervical cancer in WPW beyond the theory of papillomavirus infection; and (2) the barriers for WPW to preventive screenings. A "sexuality-oriented cervical-cancer research index" (SOCRI) is designed to inform the ratio of WPW involved in cervical cancer studies per country or region. The SOCRI indicates on how the research on cervical cancer in certain countries or regions reflects issues of sexuality. Firm conclusions await the results of additional studies that specifically address some of the methodological shortcomings of the previous investigations. At this stage we conclude that further research is essential to elucidate metabolic factors (leptin, Cu/Zn ratio), histological variances of the tumor, distant or central recurrence/survival ratio, and mortality rates based on sexuality choices. Likewise, country or state-oriented research would address the statistical challenges related to the undercounts of registered or civil WPW units in the census data.