Lesbian and bisexual women live shorter lives than straight women. Here's why

Lesbian and bisexual women are dying much younger than their straight peers, according to a new study.

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During the survey, recently published in JAMA, Harvard researchers pulled from a previous study of women who worked as nurses and were born between 1945 and 1964, 90,833 of whom had disclosed their sexuality. Of those, 89,821 (98.9 percent) identified as heterosexual, 694 (0.8 percent) identified as lesbian, and 318 (0.4 percent) identified as bisexual.

When compared with heterosexual participants, LGB participants showed earlier mortality. Bisexual women had the shortest life expectancy, dying 37 percent sooner than heterosexual women. Lesbian women died 20 percent sooner, with LGB women overall dying 26 percent sooner than straight women.

This gap is due to existing "extensive health disparities," including "worse physical, mental, and behavioral health" among queer women in comparison to straight women. The report also noted that the disparity is heavily influenced by the social stigma that LGBTQ+ people face.

"Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) women have systematically worse physical, mental, and behavioral health than heterosexual women," it states. "These disparities are due to chronic and cumulative exposure to stressors (including interpersonal and structural stigma) that propagates and magnifies ill health throughout the life course, manifesting in disparities across a breadth of adverse health outcomes that tend to become more pronounced as individuals age."

Researchers expressed concern at the gap between bisexual women and their peers, noting that because bisexuality is "more concealable than lesbian orientation because many bisexual women have male partners, stressors related to disclosure or staying closeted may be more salient for bisexual women, who are less likely than lesbian women to disclose their identities to their social networks."

To combat these disparities, the report said that "screening and treatment referral for tobacco, alcohol, and other substance use need to be available without judgment." It also recommended health care practitioners undergo "mandatory, culturally informed training on caring for LGB patients.

"Health disparities for LGB women are consequences of structural and interpersonal marginalization, which are woven into the day-to-day lives of LGB women in ways that systematically undermine their access to health services and health-promoting behaviors," it states. "Given that biases in care based on sexual orientation occur at every point in the care continuum, clinicians and health care organizations at all levels, in every specialty, and for all ages have opportunities to intervene in ways that can reduce these disparities and contribute to better health outcomes."