Health

The biggest health issues facing bisexual people

Mar 23 2018
Written by Jasmine Andersson

Bi people can often be forgotten about in the queer community.

That’s why the Human Rights Campaign established bisexual health awareness month, which intends to help bisexual people in the community to understand themselves, as well as encouraging gay and lesbian people to support their bi brethren.

The fifth year of campaigning aims to challenge some of the stigmas around the bisexual community and the unique health issues that they face.

The US-based movement has gathered some pretty heady facts about what bi people face – including disproportionate rates of domestic violence, mental health issues, and of course, bi erasure and biphobia.

Bisexual women report the highest prevalence of PTSD (26.6 percent versus 6.6 percent of straight women), reports the Movement Advancement Project.

While 77 percent of gay men and 71 percent of lesbians say that “most or all of the important people in their lives know of their sexual orientation” only 28 percent of bisexual people report being out, according to the Pew Research Centre.

In the same year, the Bisexual Resource Center shared that bisexual women are twice as likely to have an eating disorder than lesbians.

Bisexual people experience more discrimination that other members in LGBTQ communities don’t, a study in NBC News also reported.

And it appears that like in the UK, there are still some real difficulties for bisexual people about discussing their sexuality with a doctor.

According to the HRC, 39 percent of bisexual men and 33 percent of bisexual women reported not disclosing their sexual orientation to any medical provider.

This is in comparison to 13 percent of gay men and 10 percent of lesbians who chose not to disclose.

According to PAVES, a not for profit organisation that advocates for bi and pansexual people, 52 percent of the LGBT+ population identify as bisexual.