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Sexual minority youth have higher rates of substance use and pregnancy than heterosexual youth, and substance use is more common among cisgender individuals assigned female at birth. In addition, substance use during pregnancy is more prevalent among adolescents than adults. Although sexual minority youth are at greater risk for tobacco and cannabis use during pregnancy, there is a lack of research on substance use in young, pregnant sexual minority individuals. 

In the journal LGBT Health, investigators including Natacha De Genna, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Epidemiology), and Gale Richardson, PhD (Professor of Psychiatry and Epidemiology), from Pitt Psychiatry, used data from the YoungMoms Study to investigate whether prenatal substance use was more prevalent in sexual minority youth than in heterosexual youth. In addition, they tested whether sexual minority identity remained significant in multivariate models of prenatal substance use that included factors such as depression and exposure to violence. Study participants were between the ages of 13 and 21 years old, and participants characterized as sexual minority self-identified as gay or lesbian, bisexual, queer, asexual, or unsure.

Analysis of the study data revealed that pregnant sexual minority participants were more likely to use tobacco and illicit drugs than heterosexual participants were. 

“One out of three participants in this study were not heterosexual, so one implication from this research is that obstetric providers shouldn’t assume that all their younger patients are heterosexual just because they are pregnant. In addition, young people who are sexual minorities may need additional support for smoking cessation during pregnancy,” said Dr. De Genna, the study’s first author.

Prenatal Substance Use among Young Pregnant Sexual Minority People
De Genna NM, Coulter RWS, Goldschmidt L, Boss N, Hossain F, Richardson GA.
LGBT Health. 2023 Jul 6. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2023.0026.