Bisexuals– compared to straight or gay people– are significantly less likely to disclose their sexual orientation to a healthcare practitioner.
According to an article published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, about 39% of bisexual men and 33% of bisexual women reported not disclosing their sexuality to a medical provider.
That number is 10% and 13% for gay men and lesbians, respectively.
Bisexuals ‘confused’ and ‘sexually risky’?
Bi+ individuals, an umbrella term that describes any attraction to more than one gender and includes pansexual and fluid sexual orientations, make up the largest population within the LGBTQ+ community.
They are, however, far less likely to be out to important people in their life- much less to healthcare providers and medical staff.
To make matters worse, only half of clinics in a 2018 study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine said they routinely ask patients about their sexual orientation.
Also, bi+ patients who are asked about- and choose not to disclose- their sexual orientation may fear biphobia.
Even within the LGBTQ+ community, bisexuals have long been facing an odd bias.
This is the belief from other LGBTQ+ individuals that bi women are actually straight and bi men are actually gay, that both are “confused” and “sexually risky”.
Brian Feinstein, a researcher and associate professor at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, noted: “Bisexual people have these same kinds of stigmatizing experiences with healthcare providers, where they’ll see providers who say things that essentially invalidate their identity.”
For Feinstein, the responsibility to create an environment where people feel comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation should be on medical providers.
“When people disclose that they’re bisexual… it could be met with support,” he said. “And that’s something that bisexual people so often are lacking or not receiving.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges doctors to at least ask about their patients’ sexual orientation so specific health care needs and disparities can be addressed.
Bi+ women and ‘female sexual commodification’
Disclosing one’s sexual orientation, however, remains a personal decision that bisexuals- particularly bi+ women- may not feel comfortable with.
According to the most recent National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, about 61% of bisexual women report rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner
This is compared to 44% of lesbian women and 35% of heterosexual women.
Nic Johnson, a licensed psychologist and professor at Lehigh University, attributed this data to society’s perception of bi+ women.
Johnson said, “Because of our culture’s view of bisexual women as hypersexual, and even deviant in terms of their sexual behavior, maybe even well intended people are responding in ways that are really harmful.”
The identity of bi+ women is often viewed by men as a “signal not of female agency but of female sexual commodification,” Johnson added.
She further explained in her research that feeling excluded by both heterosexual and LGBTQ-oriented communities is an added stressor on top of trauma.
And racism, on top of biphobia and sexism, further exacerbates trauma for bi+ women of color.