Pubic Hair Grooming May Not Be an STI Risk

Women who frequently groom their pubic hair are not at an increased risk for contracting chlamydial infection or gonococcal infection, according to a new study that contradicts many previous reports.  

To analyze the association between pubic hair removal and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the researchers enrolled 214 women who were students at a large, midwestern university and who had presented on campus for STI testing between April 2017 and April 2018.

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The participants completed a questionnaire on demographics as well as on sexual and grooming behaviors. 

In all, 98.1% of the participants reported ever grooming. The researchers especially focused on the prevalence of STIs in women who reported extreme grooming, which was defined as removal of all pubic hair either at least weekly in the past 12 months or 6 or more times in the past 30 days. Of those who had reported extreme grooming, 53.6% did so in the past year and 18.0% did so in the past month. 

The researchers compared women who reported extreme grooming with the participants’ laboratory-confirmed prevalence of gonococcal and chlamydial infections—STIs that 9.8% of all participants had.

The researchers determined that extreme grooming was not associated with prevalent chlamydial or gonococcal infections in either the past year or in the past month.

“[In] contrast to earlier studies, we found no association between frequent grooming and STI prevalence,” the researchers concluded. “Our findings do not support for the need for public health or clinical interventions to address pubic hair grooming as a risk factor for prevalent [gonococcal infection] or [chlamydial infection].” 

—Colleen Murphy

Reference:

Luster J, Norris Turner A, Henry Jr JP, Gallo MF. Association between pubic hair grooming and prevalent sexually transmitted infection among female university students. PLoS One. 2019;14(9):e0221303. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0221303.