Bisexual Women Four Times More Likely to Have Long-Term Health Issues
Journal of Sex Research, with bisexual women four times more likely than heterosexuals to suffer from long-term issues.The researchers suggest that this may be a result of biphobia, or discrimination from heterosexuals as well as gay and lesbian people."Minority stress could put bisexual individuals at increased risk of psychological problems and negative behaviors—and ultimately at greater risk of poorer health outcomes," Carrie Llewellyn, head of the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Brighton and Sussex Medical School and co-author of the paper, said in a statement."Our results suggest that there is a greater prevalence of long-standing physical health conditions amongst people identifying as LGB.
Furthermore, nearly all LGB individuals across all gender responses in the survey felt less confident in managing their own health."The researchers used data from more than 836,000 adults from Ipsos MORI's 2015/16 English General Practice Patient Survey (GPPS), of which 23,834 people defined their sexuality as LGB.
The data was gathered from a population representative of 99 percent of the adult population in England, but it cannot separate marginalized sexual orientations who are cisgender, transgender and non-binary.They found that LBG people experienced a much more negative self-reported quality of life, especially regarding long-term physical and mental health problems, which LGB people were twice as likely to experience.
Bisexual women experienced these issues worst, being four times more likely than straight people to suffer from long-term physical and mental health problems."We found consistent evidence indicating worse overall health reported among people identifying as LGB compared to heterosexual.
