Sexual practices between women

A woman orally stimulating the nipples of her sexual partner.

Lesbian sexual practices are sexual activities where the participants are only women. The participants can be lesbian or bisexual women, though some prefer to refer to themselves as women who have sex with women and dispense with sexual identification. As with most interpersonal relationships, any physical expression of intimacy between women depends on the context of the relationship along with social, cultural and other influences.

Behaviors

Women engaging in cunnilingus.

Lesbian sexual activities may be of a penetrative or non-penetrative nature. These behaviors include fingering (digital stimulation, which may or may not be penetrative), oral sex (which may or may not be penetrative), stimulation of nipples or other erogenous zone, and tribadism (sometimes known as "scissoring"). More rarely used is anal-oral sex.

For penetrative stimulation of the vagina or anus, a partner may use fingers, their tongue, a dildo, or strap-on dildo; for variety, other sex toys are sometimes used and BDSM activities may be enjoyed. There are various sex positions for any of the aforementioned acts (penetrative and non-penetrative).

Sex educator and feminist Shere Hite's research (while subject to methodological limitations) showed "sex as we define it is a cultural institution, not a biological one," that most women need clitoral or exterior stimulation for orgasm which can be "easy and strong, given the right stimulation" and most women reach orgasm more easily by masturbation. Hite noted one of her female research subjects had written, "Sex with a woman includes: touching, kissing, smiling, looking serious, embracing, talking, digital intercourse, caressing, looking, cunnilingus, undressing, remembering later, making sounds, sometimes gently biting, sometimes crying, and breathing and sighing together." Due to wide-ranging and expansive definitions of lesbian sexual practices, many newcomers to love between women are confused at first as to what actually constitutes sex.

Research

In 1953, Alfred Kinsey's Sexual Behavior in the Human Female showed that, over the previous five years of sexual activity, 78% of women had orgasms in 60% to 100% of sexual encounters with other women, compared with 55% for heterosexual sex. Kinsey attributed this difference to female partners knowing more about women's sexuality and how to optimize women's sexual satisfaction than male partners do.

Studies by scholars such as Masters and Johnson and Marilyn Frye concluded that lesbian sexual behaviors more often have qualities associated with sexual satisfaction than their heterosexual counterparts. Like Kinsey, scholars such as Peplau, Fingerhut and Beals (2004) and Diamond (2006) found that lesbians have orgasms more often and more easily in sexual interactions than heterosexual women do, and that female partners are more likely to emphasize the emotional aspects of lovemaking. Other elements of lesbian sexual encounters include more full-body sexual contact, rather than genital-focused contact, less preoccupation or anxiety about achieving orgasm, more sexual assertiveness and communication about sexual needs, longer lasting sexual encounters and greater satisfaction with the overall quality of one's sexual life. Masters and Johnson's further concluded that vaginal penetration with dildos is rare, and that lesbians tend to do more overall genital stimulation than direct clitoral stimulation, which is also often the case for heterosexual relationships.

Preferences for specific sexual practices among lesbians have also been acknowledged. There are lesbians who like anal sex and others "who cannot bear the thought of it". In 1987, a non-scientific study (Munson) was conducted of more than 100 members of a lesbian social organization in Colorado. When asked what techniques they used in their last 10 sexual encounters, 100% reported kissing, sucking on breasts, and manual stimulation of the clitoris; more than 90% reported French kissing, oral sex, and fingers inserted into the vagina; and 80% reported tribadism. Lesbians in their 30s were twice as likely as other age groups to engage in anal stimulation (with a finger or dildo).

Health risks

A woman performing anilingus on another woman.

When lesbian sexual activity is of a non-penetrative nature, the risk of exchange of bodily fluids is generally lower than other forms of sexual intercourse. As such, the incidence of transmission of a sexually transmitted disease such as HIV is relatively low, though not eliminated.

Like most sexual activity, lesbian sexual activities can carry risks of sexually transmitted and other pathogenic diseases. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported there is little data available regarding the risk of spreading sexually transmitted diseases between women. However, the CDC notes that pathogens such as metronidazole-resistant trichomoniasis, genotype-concordant HIV, human papilloma virus (HPV, which has been linked to nearly all cases of cervical cancer) and syphilis can be spread through sexual contact between women. While the rates of these pathologies is unknown, one study showed 30% of lesbians and bisexual women had medical histories with sexually transmitted diseases. This does not mean sexually active lesbians are exposed to higher health risks than the general population. Health Canada noted "the prevalence of all types of HPV (cancer and non-cancer-causing) in different groups of Canadian women ranges from 20%–33%" and an American university study found 60% of sexually active females were infected with HPV at some time within a three year period.

These safer sex recommendations
are generally agreed upon by
public health officials for
women who have sex with women
to avoid sexually transmitted diseases (STDs):

Avoid contact with a partner’s menstrual blood and with any visible genital lesions.

Cover sex toys that penetrate more than one person’s vagina or anus with a new condom for each person; consider using different toys for each person.

Use a barrier (e.g., latex sheet, dental dam, cut-open condom, plastic wrap) during oral sex.

Use latex or vinyl gloves and lubricant for any manual sex that might cause bleeding.

The CDC did not recognize female-to-female transmission as a possible method of HIV infection until 1995. It is possible, though less likely, for transmission to occur in female-to-female sexual activity. Though the risk is not as high as for male-to-male and male-to-female transmission, the risk is still present. HIV can be spread through body fluids, such as blood (including menstrual blood), vaginal fluid and breast milk. Transmission can also take place through oral sex if a woman has cuts or sores in her mouth, or poor oral hygiene, especially if her partner is menstruating. HIV can also be spread through the sharing of penetrative sex toys if their use results in broken skin within the vagina or anus.

See also

• Cunnilingus
• Lesbian bed death