To build a family: exploring preferred paths to parenthood among plurisexual individuals without children

Limited research has examined family-building strategies among plurisexual individuals. Culture and gender are essential determinants of parenthood prospects among individuals with minoritized sexual identities. For plurisexual individuals, the partner's gender also seems to play a critical role. Our investigation aimed to explore cisgender plurisexual individuals' preferred paths to parenthood considering their country of origin, gender, and partner's gender.

We examined associations between preferred pathways to parenthood and country, gender, and partner's gender among 405 cisgender plurisexual individuals aged between 18 and 45 years (M = 25.76; SD = 5.57), from Portugal (n = 140; 34.9%), Israel (n = 78; 19.3%), Poland (n = 85; 21%), and the UK (n = 102; 25.2%).

Overall, couple adoption and sexual intercourse were the most chosen pathways to parenthood, and self-insemination and co-parenting were the least chosen. Participants from Poland and the United Kingdom were less likely to choose artificial insemination, single adoption, and self-insemination than their Portuguese counterparts. Women were more likely than men to choose artificial insemination. Individuals in different-gender relationships were more likely to choose sexual intercourse as a means of having children than were those in same-gender relationships, and the opposite was true for artificial insemination.

Country, gender, and the partner's gender influence plurisexual individuals' choice of some parenthood pathways. Psychological and reproductive counselling should consider these aspects.