A new survey released Thursday by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that more women are reporting bisexual encounters than ever before. The numbers are even higher for women in their teens and twenties according to the CDC.
The new statistics show that 11.5 percent of all women between the ages of 18 and 44 have had at least one sexual encounter with another woman during their lifetimes. Ten years ago, only four percent of women reported having at least one same sex encounter.
Women in their late teens and early 20s had the highest percentage of same sex encounters according to the survey results, with 14 percent admitting to at least one such encounter.
The numbers were lower among men. Only six percent on men in their late teens or early 20s admitted to at least one sexual encounter with another man. The numbers were even lower for all men 18-44.
It is unclear whether the number of men having same-sex encounters is actually lower of if men are less likely to report it due to the stigma attached to it.
'Instead of just anecdotes and stories that raise people's anxieties, I think it's best to have real numbers,' said William Mosher, the statistician who oversaw the report. 'And now we have those.'
The survey was based on 12,571 in-person interviews conducted between March 2002 and 2003.
The results also showed that most people have relatively few sexual partners and are using condoms in higher numbers. Both of those statistics are good to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
