Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College Street Room 560, Toronto, ON, M5T 3M7, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Clark University, 950 Main St., Worcester, MA, 01610, USA.
Matern Child Health J. 2019 Aug;23(8):1071-1078. doi: 10.1007/s10995-019-02741-4.
Objectives This study sought to explore how sexual minority women (SMW) and heterosexual women compare in terms of reproductive history, with a particular focus on examining within-group differences among SMW. Methods Women were predominantly recruited through consecutive sampling during presentation for prenatal care in Toronto Canada, and Massachusetts, USA. In total, 96 partnered pregnant women (62 SMW, 34 heterosexual) completed an internet survey during 2013-2015. Results We found few significant differences in reproductive history outcomes when comparing SMW and heterosexual groups. However, when we compared male-partnered SMW to female-partnered SMW, we found potentially important differences in rates of miscarriage and pregnancy complications, indicating that partner gender may be an important contributor to differences in reproductive history among SMW. Conclusions for Practice These findings highlight the need to recognize the unique health risks with which male-partnered SMW may present. Considering that this group is often invisible in clinical practice, the findings from this exploratory study have important implications for providers who treat women during the transition to parenthood. Future research should further examine the differences in social and health access within larger samples of SMW groups, as well as seek to understand the complex relationships between sexual identity and perinatal health for this understudied group of women.
目的 本研究旨在探讨性少数群体女性（SMW）与异性恋女性在生育史方面的差异，并特别关注 SMW 群体内的差异。
方法 主要通过在加拿大多伦多和美国马萨诸塞州就诊的产前护理过程中连续抽样招募女性。共有 96 名有伴侣的孕妇（62 名 SMW，34 名异性恋）于 2013 年至 2015 年间完成了一项网络调查。
结果 在比较 SMW 和异性恋群体的生育史结果时，我们发现几乎没有显著差异。然而，当我们将男性伴侣的 SMW 与女性伴侣的 SMW 进行比较时，我们发现流产率和妊娠并发症存在潜在的重要差异，这表明伴侣的性别可能是 SMW 生育史差异的一个重要因素。
实践结论 这些发现强调了需要认识到男性伴侣的 SMW 可能存在的独特健康风险。考虑到这一群体在临床实践中往往不被注意到，这项探索性研究的结果对治疗处于向父母过渡阶段的女性的提供者具有重要意义。未来的研究应该进一步研究更大的 SMW 群体中社会和健康机会的差异，并寻求理解性身份与围产期健康之间的复杂关系，因为这是一个对女性群体研究不足的领域。
