Sexual practices have a significant impact on the vaginal microbiota of women who have sex with women.

ABSTRACT: Women-who-have-sex-with-women (WSW) are at increased risk of bacterial vaginosis (BV). We investigated the impact of practices and past BV on the vaginal microbiota within a two-year longitudinal cohort of Australian WSW. Self-collected vaginal swabs were used to characterise the vaginal microbiota using 16S-rRNA gene sequencing. Hierarchical clustering defined community state types (CSTs). Bacterial diversity was calculated using the Shannon diversity index and instability of the vaginal microbiota was assessed by change of CST and Bray-Curtis dissimilarity. Sex with a new partner increased the bacterial diversity (adjusted-coefficient = 0.41, 95%CI: 0.21,0.60, p < 0.001) and instability of the vaginal microbiota, in terms of both change of CST (adjusted-odds-ratio = 2.65, 95%CI: 1.34,5.2

SUBMITTER: Plummer EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6930205 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature