NEW YORK, Oct 07 (Reuters Health) -- One-third of sexually active American women are at risk for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), but over 3 million are unaware of it because they think their partner is faithful to them, according to New York researchers.
Analyzing two national studies of sexual behavior among Americans, the researchers estimated that one-third (or 17 million) of sexually active women ages 15 to 44 were at risk for STDs because they or their sexual partners had more than one partner in the previous year. Lawrence B. Finer and colleagues at The Alan Guttmacher Institute reported their findings in the September/October issue of the institute's journal, Family Planning Perspectives.
The researchers focused on one of the behaviors that increases the risk for infections such as HIV, gonorrhea and chlamydia -- having multiple sex partners over a short period of time. They did not study actual infection rates among participants. The investigators categorized at-risk women as being at "direct" risk if they had more than one partner in the past year, or at "indirect" risk through sex with a man who had multiple partners in the past year. The figures came from two studies: the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFS), which questioned nearly 20,000 women on the number of partners both they and their partners had been with in the past year; and the General Social Survey (GSS), which asked men and women about only their own sexual partners.
According to the NSFS, in 1995, 21% of women ages 15 to 44 had multiple sexual partners in the previous year; 15% said a partner had other partners within the past year. Overall, 27% of the women in the NSFS "reported behavior that put them directly or indirectly at risk of STDs," the authors found.
Many women, the researchers contend, may underestimate their STD risk because they do not know their partners' sexual history. Compared with what women reported about their partners' previous relationships in the NSFS, men in the GSS were more likely to report multiple partners in the past year. About 23% of men in the GSS said they had more than one partner, while 15% of women in the other study believed this about their current male partner. This discrepancy, according to Finer and colleagues, suggests that 3.5 million US women "mistakenly believe they are in a mutually monogamous relationship."
Importantly, the researchers report, women at indirect risk for STDs through their partners' exposure to others were less likely to use condoms, with 23% saying they used condoms in the past year. In contrast, 58% of women who reported both direct and indirect exposure to STDs used condoms in the previous year, while 45% of those who reported only direct exposure did so.
"People who have had multiple partners may be more aware of their risk level," while among those at indirect risk for STDs, "...the impetus to use condoms may not be as strong," Finer and colleagues speculated.
These findings, they conclude, suggest there is a "need to better define STD risk and risky sexual behavior," and to better educate the public on the risks of having multiple partners.
