Heterosexual repertoire is associated with same-sex experience

The association of sexual repertoire with sexual preference, partnership and sociodemographic characteristics, and sexual history among white American (WA) and African-Americans (AA) is described.

Cross-sectional computer-assisted telephone survey.

Seattle residents 18 to 39 years of age selected via random digit dialing; an additional sample of AA sampled from listed telephone numbers from census tracks with over 40% Aa.

The study included 356 WA and 140 AA ever engaging in vaginal intercourse who answered questions regarding their usual sexual repertoire with their most recent opposite-sex partner. The 5% of WA engaging in vaginal, oral, and anal intercourse with their most recent opposite-sex partner were 2.7 times (95% CI: 0.9, 7.9) as likely to report nonmonogamy and 8.4 times (95% CI: 2.6, 27.2) as likely to report a history of same-sex partners. Persons reporting a history of both same- and opposite-sex partnerships were more likely than those with only opposite-sex partners to report engaging in anal and oral sex with their most recent opposite-sex partner regardless of gender (anal: women 24% vs. 4%, p < 0.001; men: 33% vs. 6%, p < 0.001; oral: women 95% vs. 74%, p = 0.03; men 89% vs. 78%, p = 0.4). Persons with a history of a same-sex partner were also more likely than those with only opposite-sex partners to have a nonmonogamous current relationship (WA: odds ratio [OR] = 2.3; 95% CI: 0.9, 5.7; AA: OR = 6.8; 95% CI: 0.6, 338) to engage in sex during menses (WA: OR = 1.9; 0.7, 5.4; AA: 9.6; 1.0, 4.6) and to have more sex partners in their life (WA: p = 0.002; AA: p = 0.07).

Diverse sexual repertoires are associated with other risk behaviors putting the individual at high risk of acquiring or transmitting a sexually transmitted diseases (STD).