Sexual fluidity and BMI, obesity, and physical activity

Fricke, Julie; Sironi, Maria

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2020.100620

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Additionally, it has previously been proposed that a lack of exercise is the root cause behind increased weight in sexual minority women and that providers should urge their lesbian and bisexual female clients to exercise more (McNamara & Ng, 2016). However, the same study that proposed this reasoning later contradicted it with the inclusion of a statistic that stated that lesbian and bisexual women exercise just as much on average than heterosexual women (McNamara & Ng, 2016), and an even more recent study concluded that women on a more homosexual end of the sexuality spectrum are significantly more physically active and less significantly obese than open access -ujph.org heterosexual women (Fricke & Sironi, 2020).Whatever the reasons for larger body size among sexual minority women, if in fact a true phenomenon might be, the lack of focus and thorough research on the underlying societal and cultural causes of supposed obesity among sexual minority women pushes one to reexamine whether many medical researchers and practitioners are genuinely concerned for lesbian and bisexual women's health. It may be the case that using higher weight and its historical association with physical deviance from societal norms in conjunction with sexual minority women's sexual deviance from societal norms serves as a way of finding individual fault with their relatively increased breast cancer risk (McPhail, 2014).…”

Section: Interrogating the Risk Factors: Body Mass Index And Exercisementioning

confidence: 99%

Dispelling Myths Regarding Cisgender Sexual Minority Women and Breast Cancer

Troy

2023

Undergraduate Journal of Public Health

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Lesbian and bisexual cisgender women have higher rates of breast cancer and breast cancer mortality than their heterosexual counterparts (Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health Issues and Research Gaps and Opportunities, 2014). There is not much known about why this is the case, although most researchers revert to the common hypotheses that the increased prevalence of obesity, substance abuse, and nulliparity (not having given birth) among lesbian and bisexual women contributes to incidences of breast cancer (Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health Issues and Research Gaps and Opportunities, 2014). These hypotheses place individual responsibility on sexual minority women with breast cancer as opposed to identifying complicated, underlying structural problems. This literature review argues that homophobia and bisexual invisibility, in conjunction with fatphobia and inaccurate research methodology, have prevented clinicians and scientists from thoroughly examining the ways in which increased rates alcohol abuse, the physiological effects of stress due to discrimination, and a lower rate of receiving mammograms caused by perceived negative judgment from healthcare providers contribute to the higher prevalence of breast cancer among lesbian and bisexual women.

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Section: Interrogating the Risk Factors: Body Mass Index And Exercisementioning

confidence: 99%

Dispelling Myths Regarding Cisgender Sexual Minority Women and Breast Cancer

Troy

2023

Undergraduate Journal of Public Health

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“…This difference in identity development by sex assigned at birth could be extended to differential rates of fluidity in sexuality identity between cisgender males and females. For example, research suggests that cisgender females may be more likely to report sexual identity fluidity compared to males over time (e.g., Oi and Wilkinson, 2018 [19.3 vs. 13.3%]; Fricke and Sironi, 2020 [18.0 vs. 6.2%], Savin-Williams et al, 2012 [17.8 vs. 6.2%], and Stewart et al, 2019 [26.0 vs. 11.0%]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sexual identity fluidity, identity management stress, and depression among sexual minority adolescents

et al. 2023

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IntroductionSexual identity is mutable and evolving, particularly during adolescence. Sexual identity fluidity could be stressful for some adolescents and may differ by birth-sex. Evidence suggests chronic stress can lead to negative mental health outcomes. However, it is unknown if these two processes (stress and depression) differ by sexual identity fluidity.MethodsThis paper studied time-sequential associations between identity management stress and depression over time by sexual identity fluidity, in a national longitudinal data from sexual minority adolescents (SMA) aged 14–17 years using a multigroup autoregressive cross-lagged model (n = 1077).ResultsIn the sample, 40% of SMA reported at least one change in sexual identity over 18-month period. Greater number of cisgender females reported sexual identity fluidity compared to their male counterparts (46.9% vs. 26.6%). A temporal cross-lagged effect was reported between depression and identity management stress among cisgender females who reported fluidity in sexual identity; and no cross-lagged effect was reported among those females who did not report fluidity. However, among cisgender male sample depression predicted subsequent identity management stress, irrespective of their change sexual identity fluidity status.ConclusionPublic health programs and practice must be responsive to the sexual identity fluidity processes among adolescents, with particular attention to minority stress and depression. In addition, our results indicate that sexual identity development and fluidity processes differ between cisgender females and males; and the nuances associated with these processes of change need further investigation.

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