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Study finds no association between ‘extreme grooming,’ STIs in women
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Researchers found no association between frequent pubic hair grooming and STI prevalence among female students at one Midwestern college, according to study results published in PLoS One.
The study specifically evaluated the association between self-reported “extreme grooming” — “removal of all pubic hair at least weekly in the past 12 months or [at least] six times in the past 30 days” — and the prevalence of gonococcal or chlamydial infection.
The researchers said the findings indicate no need for public health or clinical interventions to address pubic hair grooming as a risk factor for STIs.
“Our findings are relevant because they add evidence to the minimal literature about this topic,” Jamie Luster, MPH, from the College of Public Health at Ohio State University, told Infectious Disease News. “While an earlier study found that pubic hair grooming was associated with STIs, we did not, and this is meaningful because it may help clinicians consider whether or not to make recommendations relating to this topic.”
According to Luster and colleagues, gonococcal and chlamydial infections are the most common STIs in the United States, which has seen a rise in STI rates in recent years. Young women aged 15 to 24 years have the highest incidence of these infections, the researchers noted.
To test the link between the two infections and pubic grooming indicated by previous findings, Luster and colleagues enrolled English-speaking, adult female students who presented on-campus for STI testing between April 2017 and April 2018. They administered questionnaires on sexual and grooming behaviors and demographics, and linked these to participants’ STI test results.
The questionnaires included the question, “In the past 12 months, which best describes how often you removed all of your pubic hair?” The researchers defined “extreme groomers” as those who responded “weekly” or “daily,” and nonextreme groomers as those who responded “monthly,” “less than 12 times” or “never.” The researchers used two logistic regression models to determine whether odds of either infection varied by extreme groomer status for either time interval.
Among the 214 women included in the study, the prevalence of gonococcal or chlamydial infections was 9.8%. Nearly all participants (98.1%) reported ever grooming. More than half (53.6%) reported extreme grooming in the past year, with 18% reporting it in the past month. According to the researchers, extreme grooming was not associated with prevalent gonococcal or chlamydial infections in the past year (OR = 0.8; 95% CI, 0.3-1.9; adjusted OR = 0.7; 95% CI, 0.3-2) or in the past month (OR = 0.5; 95% CI, 0.1-2; aOR = 0.4; 95% CI, 0.1-1.9).
They concluded that although pubic hair grooming was common among female university students seeking STI testing, the findings do not support grooming as an STI risk factor in this population.
“However, the results are not confirmatory,” Luster said. “More research is required, such as clinical trials or studies that follow people over time, to gain a better understanding of whether there is an association between the two.” – by Joe Gramigna
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
Perspective
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Jeanne M. Marrazzo, MD, MPH
The loss of wildlife habitat is much in the news these days: The Amazon is burning, higher temperatures are melting ancient ice deposits and deforestation rates are escalating in areas where the most vulnerable species exist. Several years ago, The Daily Show highlighted a similar fate imposed upon the pubic louse by the increasingly prevalent trend of genital “deforestation”: complete shaving of pubic hair. Has this situation, dire for the pubic louse Pediculosis pubis (crabs), truly come to pass, and does it represent an opportunity for other STIs?
An intriguing new study examines recent reports of “extreme grooming” (removal of all pubic hair either at least weekly in the past year or more than six times in the past 30 days) with likelihood of detection of chlamydia or gonorrhea among 214 women attending a university clinic. No association was seen, but prevalence of gonorrhea was very low (0.9%), whereas chlamydia as expected was 9%. Should this small cross-sectional study reassure us that genital deforestation is safe in terms of STIs? I believe not — acquisition of genital herpes simplex virus may be the most important risk where epithelial disruption is concerned, and it was not assessed in this small cross-sectional study, which nonetheless reminds us just how common extreme grooming is in young people today.
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