Women Seven Times More Likely than Men to Admit Infections

Women are seven times more likely than men to admit to a partner that they have a sexually acquired infection, according to research in Sexually Transmitted Infections (2002;78;45-9). The findings were independent of variants in age or type of infection.

The study surveyed three populations in France in the early to mid 1990s. Two of the surveys consisted of over 7,000 adults; the third included over 6,000 adolescents age 15 and over. All participants were asked if they had had an STD in the past five years, and in the case of adolescents, whether they had ever been infected.

Forty-five adolescents and 179 adults reported a history of STDs. Nine out of 10 adults reported that they had told previous partners about any STD; but one in four adolescents had not. Less than 8 percent of people in the first survey said they had not informed their main partner, but three-quarters had not told "other" partners. In the second survey, almost all of the respondents said they had not told any of their previous partners, although most said they had told their current partner. Almost one-third of adolescents had failed to notify current partners.

There was a striking gender difference in the willingness to admit to having an STD: 14 percent of men, compared with just 2 percent of women, had not told their main partner. Among adolescents, half the boys did not tell their partner; but fewer than 1 in 10 girls did not tell. Those age 16 and under were least likely to admit to having an STD.

"These results are all the more worrying in that they probably underestimate the true situation," concluded the authors, adding that many of the respondents might have said they had told their main or current partner when, in fact, they had not. Partner notification is extremely important they said, because many STDs are symptomless, particularly in women.

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