Do sexual minorities receive appropriate sexual and reproductive health care and counseling?
Open accessAbstract
CONTEXT: Sexual minority women (SMW) are less likely to use sexual and reproductive health care services and receive contraceptive counseling than their heterosexual peers. The role of recent sexual partners and the type of information provided when SMW access health services are unclear. METHODS: The National Survey of Family Growth 2006-2015 was used to document sexual orientation disparities in the use of sexual and reproductive health services and counseling in clinical settings among 20,703 women. We incorporate data on sexual partners in the past 12 months to investigate whether recent sex with men was associated with health care seeking behavior and reproductive counseling. RESULTS: Eight-seven percent of the sample reported a male partner in the past 12 months, including 83% of bisexual women and 17% of lesbian women. In clinical settings, 48% of women reported birth control counseling at pregnancy or Pap tests, 49% reported a condom consult at an sexually transmitted diseases (STD) screening, and 9% reported emergency contraception counseling at a Pap test. Logistic regression models show that lesbian women were less likely than heterosexual women to have been given a contraceptive prescription or received contraceptive counseling, but were more likely to have received an STD test. In clinical settings, lesbian women were less likely to receive contraceptive counseling at pregnancy tests, and lesbian women without male partners were less likely to have a counseling about condom use at STD-related visits compared with heterosexual women. CONCLUSIONS: At least some women and providers adjust health care seeking behaviors and information provided to women based upon recent sexual behavior histories. More work is needed to understand why disparities in reproductive health services and contraceptive use persist among SMW who engage in sex with men.
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The majority of WSW (53%-97%) have had sex with men in the past and continue to do so, with 5%-28% of WSW reporting male partners during the previous year.
“The majority of WSW (53%–97%) have had sex with men in the past and continue to do so, with 5%–28% of WSW reporting male partners during the previous year (292,297–300).”
From Sexually Transmitted Infections Treatment Guidelines, 2021 (2021) · cites this paper as [300]
The Introduction reports that 84% of lesbian women had a lifetime male partner and 10% had one in the past 12 months; the Results report 17% with a male partner in the past 12 months. These figures support the general point, but the paper does not give the claimed 53%–97% and 5%–28% ranges for WSW as a group; its figures are for women classified by sexual identity. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Sexually Transmitted Infections Treatment Guidelines, 2021
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- Authors
- Everett, B. G., Higgins, J. A., Haider, S., & Carpenter, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Utah (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Everett, Bethany G.
- Venue
- Journal of Women s Health
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2019-01
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 53-62
- ISSN
- 1059-7115 (ISSN-L)
- 1540-9996
- 1931-843X
- PMC
- PMC6343198
- OpenAlex
- W2898715720
- Cited by
- 75
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 6
- FWCI
- 8.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Women s Health (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD091405, P2CHD047873)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions
- Keywords
- sexual minority women, lesbians, bisexual women, sexual and reproductive health services, contraceptive counseling, STI screening, health care disparities, sexual orientation, health-seeking behavior
- MeSH terms
- Sexual and Gender Minorities, Adolescent, Adult, Contraception Behavior, Counseling, Cross-Sectional Studies, Family Planning Services, Female, Humans, Male, Pregnancy, Sexual Partners, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Condoms, Safe Sex, Reproductive Health Services, Healthcare Disparities, Reproductive Health
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