Bisexuality in women appears to be a distinctive sexual orientation and not an experimental or transitional stage that some women take in their journey towards lesbianism. At least that seems to indicate the data in research published by the American Psychological Association.

The study, conducted on a sample of 79 women no longer straight by at least 10 years, found that women bisexuals maintained a stable pattern of attraction to both sexes. Addition, research seems to have reversed the stereotype that bisexual women are uninterested or unable to commit to long-term monogamous relationship type.

“This research provides the first empirical examination to make assumptions about the nature of bisexuality, understood as a sexual identity label and as a model of nonexclusive sexual attraction and behavior,” says psychologist Lisa M. Diamond, a psychologist from the University of Utah who led the study. “The results show a remarkable fluidity of the attractions of lesbians toward a bisexual orientation, and also contribute to assist researchers in understanding the complexity of minorities with sexual behavior that goes beyond the cycle of life.”

Diamond used the method of the interview took place in cycles of five sessions and has collected data from 79 women who claimed to lesbians and / or bisexual at least a decade.

The age of test subjects varied between 18 and 25 years. Here are the main findings from the investigation of Dr. Diamond:

• The bisexuals were more likely than lesbians to change their identity during the study, but tended to shift from a bisexual identity is not defined, rather than to solve lesbian or heterosexual.
• 17% of respondents went from a bisexual or straight to an identity not defined during the study but more than half of these women switched back to bisexual and or not defined by the end.
• In the ten years under investigation, the majority of women were involved in relationships of long duration (e.g., more than a year) monogamous type: 70% of self-identified lesbians, 89% of the bisexuals, 85 % of heterosexual women and 67% of non-labeled, and came to join the ranks of heterosexuals.
• 15% of women who identified themselves as lesbians, at the last session of talks reported having had sexual contact with a man over the past two years.

In contrast, none of the women who were recognized during the ‘heterosexual reported having had sexual contact with a woman, in the two previous years.

“This provides further support for the idea that female sexuality is relatively fluid and changing, and that the distinction between lesbian and bisexual women is not a rigid classification, but flexible and capable of change,” he said in his opinion the Diamond .