Teen lesbian and bi girls unaware they can give each other STIs, study shows
LGBT Lesbian Couple Moments Happiness Concept (Photo: rawpixel)
Alarming numbers of queer women are unaware of dental dams and the fact that they can contract an STI from another woman, a study has shown.
The research, conducted by researchers at the Center for Innovative Public Health Research in collaboration with the University of British Columbia and the City University of New York, found that queer women knew alarmingly little about their sexual health.
After questioning 160 14-18-year-old lesbian and bisexual participants, many were left without the information they needed to have healthy sex lives, said the article in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Many didn’t realise that dental dams can be used during oral sex to prevent stis, while others were unaware that you can catch STIs from sex toys.
A latex dental dam (inga)
“Participants told us, they ’literally had never heard of dental dams,’ or thought STIs weren’t a concern when having sex with girls,” said UCB researcher Jennifer Wolowic to Newnownext.com.
“Many [girls] told us they didn’t find their sex-ed programs, if they even had one, to be very informative,” Wolowic added.
“And even when they asked questions, the focus on heterosexual sex made them feel uncomfortable.”
In the US, there are are 11 states with no sex education or HIV education mandate, including Florida, Texas and Arizona.
Only 17 states out of the 50 mandate that sex education with information on contraception is taught in schools.
In the UK, LGB sex education and other queer identities are not taught about at schools. You can change that by adding your thoughts in to the government’s sex education consultation here.
