Penn's Carriage House hosted the second annual Women's Wellness Day on Saturday in cooperation with the Mazzoni Center -- the first transgender health clinic in Pennsylvania.
The Mazzoni Center provides primary medical care, HIV testing and services, counseling and support groups for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The center has always had a good relationship with the LGBT community at Penn, according to Danny Horn, the education director for the Mazzoni Center and a Penn alumnus. Thus it was a natural decision to choose the Carriage House to hold Women's Wellness Day.
Horn said that in terms of LGBT health care, "there is so much more research and there is more information in the media. [However,] people don't have a chance to talk about" it, so the Mazzoni Center has joined with Penn to bring LGBT people together.
Throughout the six-hour event, several speakers held seminars for those in attendance. According to Erin Cross -- staff liaison for Women's Wellness Day -- the event sponsored several workshop sessions that covered "a variety of topics of concern to women's health, ranging from breast cancer health to smoking cessation to finding a good doctor."
The event commenced with a discussion on breast cancer led by spokespeople from the Linda Creed Breast Cancer Foundation. The foundation has developed a program called the Rainbow Circle to inform lesbian, bisexual and transgendered women about their increased risk of protracting breast cancer.
Melanie Santiago, head clinician at the Mazzoni Center and Penn alumna, noted that lesbian, bisexual and transgendered women have a higher risk for breast cancer.
"Exposure to estrogen increases your chances of getting breast cancer, and straight women who do have children have altered hormone levels and less exposure to estrogen," Santiago said.
The second and most popular event of the day was a workshop about creating families led by Philadelphia Family Pride -- an advocacy, support and social network for LGBT parents and their children.
Horn said that although this workshop was only scheduled to last for an hour, almost two hours later "they were still going strong." He added that because adoption and insemination have become more common, more people view these procedures as acceptable ways for LGBT men and women to start families.
"It is seen as a less scary, risky thing," Horn said.
Starting a family can often be a complicated process. "The Rainbow Couch: Politics and Practices of Getting Help," led by Mona Cardell, a psychologist with the Women's Therapy Group -- a private, nonprofit psychotherapy center in Center City -- provided information on accessing different forms of therapy.
While searching for such therapy, it is essential to find a receptive health care professional. Therefore, the next session was entitled "Getting Your Health Care Professional to Listen."
"Communication with your provider is huge, or else no one wins," Santiago said, emphasizing the need to be an educated consumer and wary of information from the Internet.
Women's Wellness Day was attended by approximately 25 women from the surrounding Philadelphia area. Although the turnout was less than the organizers expected, Anthony Johnson, communications director for the Mazzoni Center, believed it was a success because "women who are coming are getting what they need."
