From the *American Dental Association, Chicago, IL; †University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chicago, IL; ‡Howard Brown Health Center, Chicago, IL; §Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL; and ¶Division of Infectious Diseases, John H. Stroger Hospital, Chicago, IL.
Sex Transm Dis. 2014 Mar;41(3):194-9. doi: 10.1097/OLQ.0000000000000091.
Lesbian women may perceive themselves to be at lower risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and use reproductive health care at lower rates compared with heterosexual women. Therefore, STIs in sexual minority women may go undetected. The prevalence and risk factors of urogenital STIs in women of different sexual orientations were investigated.
This is a cross-sectional study of women attending the STI clinic of Howard Brown Health Center in Chicago, Illinois. Women were eligible for inclusion in this study if they reported a sexual identity and were screened for urogenital gonorrhea (GC)/chlamydia (CT) in the clinic between January 2008 and December 2011.
Among the 669 women studied, the urogenital prevalence of GC was 1.5% and that of CT was 5.2%. Gonorrhea and CT were only diagnosed in women with recent male sex partners, but sexual identity was not necessarily consistent with sexual partner sex, and women of all sexual orientations were diagnosed as having STIs. Bisexual and heterosexual women had similar diagnosis and STI history rates, whereas lesbian women had a significantly lower history of STIs. Bisexual women had more sex partners than heterosexual or lesbian women, and their partners were less likely to be monogamous. Compared with heterosexual women, sexual minority women had twice the odds of drug use in the last year.
Chlamydia and GC were diagnosed in sexual minority women, and several cases would have been missed if lesbian women were not tested for STIs. High rates of substance use among sexual minority women highlight the need for targeted interventions.
与异性恋女性相比，女同性恋者可能认为自己感染性传播感染（STI）的风险较低，并且使用生殖健康护理的频率也较低。因此，性少数群体女性中的 STI 可能未被发现。本研究调查了不同性取向女性的泌尿生殖 STI 的流行率和危险因素。
这是一项在伊利诺伊州芝加哥霍华德·布朗健康中心性传播感染诊所就诊的女性的横断面研究。如果女性报告了性身份，并在 2008 年 1 月至 2011 年 12 月期间在诊所筛查泌尿生殖淋病（GC）/衣原体（CT），则有资格纳入本研究。
在 669 名研究女性中，泌尿生殖 GC 的流行率为 1.5%，CT 的流行率为 5.2%。仅在最近有男性性伴侣的女性中诊断出淋病和 CT，但性身份不一定与性伴侣的性别一致，所有性取向的女性都被诊断出患有 STI。双性恋和异性恋女性的诊断和 STI 史发生率相似，而女同性恋女性的 STI 史发生率明显较低。双性恋女性的性伴侣比异性恋或女同性恋女性多，而且她们的伴侣不太可能是一夫一妻制。与异性恋女性相比，性少数女性在过去一年中使用毒品的可能性是异性恋女性的两倍。
在性少数女性中诊断出衣原体和 GC，如果不对女同性恋者进行 STI 检测，可能会错过一些病例。性少数群体女性中较高的物质使用率突出表明需要进行针对性干预。
