Many obese women sexually active, study finds
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published October 30, 2008 at 11:17 a.m.
Updated October 30, 2008 at 11:17 a.m.
Doctors shouldn't assume that their overweight female patients aren't having sex, because they are, more often that women of normal weight, a new study suggests.
The study by researchers in Oregon, Hawaii and Colorado explodes "the stereotype that you have to be slender to have sex," said lead author Bliss Kaneshiro, a researcher at the University of Hawaii.
Nichole Carlson of the University of Colorado Denver was one of the co-authors of the study published in Obstetrics & Gynecology. Another co-author was Kaneshiro's Oregon State University Professor Marie Harvey.
Earlier studies found that obese and overweight women are at greater risk of unintended pregnancy.
Kaneshiro wondered if that could be because these women don't get the counseling and attention from doctors that normal-weight women enjoy.
Could those doctors be assuming that there's no reason to talk about safe sex or sexually-transmitted diseases because these overweight women probably aren't having sex anyway?
If it could be proven that the basic assumption was wrong, it could awaken doctors to the need to give good advice on sex to all their patients, not just the slender ones.
Kaneshiro and her colleagues turned to the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth that collected data on the sexual behavior of 7,000 women.
They found that among the women considered overweight or obese, 92 percent reported a history of sexual intercourse with a man.
Eighty-seven percent of the women in the normal body mass range reported having sexual intercourse with a man.
"These results were unexpected and we don't really know why this is the case," Kaneshiro said.
But the implications are clear, she said. "This study indicates that all women deserve diligence in counseling on unintended pregnancy and STD prevention, regardless of body mass index."
The study was awarded first prize at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' annual meeting this year.
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