A study out of Canada suggests that heterosexual men are going through it compared to their homosexual counterparts.
Published Monday in Psychosomatic Medicine, the study was one of the first to examine stress levels between out gays and closeted gays.
87 men and women from Montreal, with an average age of 25, were recruited for the study to determine whether gays, lesbians and bisexuals experienced reduced stress and anxiety after coming out.
Unsurprisingly, they did, but — rather surprisingly — heterosexual men had higher-than expected systemic stress, or allostatic load, than all the other groups.
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“Interestingly and contrary to our hypothesis, gay and bisexual men had significantly lower depressive symptoms and allostatic load levels than heterosexual men,” wrote McGill University neuroscientist and lead author Robert-Paul Juster.
The L.A. Times reports:
Heterosexual men registered a third higher on an index of allostatic load compared with gay and bisexual men. In contrast, lesbian and bisexual women ranked higher than heterosexual women on the index.
Noting that clinical indexes for stress include measures of body weight and fat, authors speculated that it was possible that gay and bisexual men focused more on maintaining thinness and muscularity than straight men.
So apparently straight dudes are out of shape and bent out of shape about it. The study also suggests that gay and bisexual men have learned to handle their shit better.
“It has been proposed that certain kind of stigma-related stresses can produce adaptive behavioral responses that make individuals more resilient and effective at managing future stressors,” the study’s authors wrote.
The authors acknowledged, however, that there were certain factors that may have skewed the study’s results.
The sample of participants, besides being small, had an unequal proportion of lesbians and bisexual men compared to gay men and bisexual women. Meanwhile, transgender individuals were excluded all-together over concerns that changes in their sex hormones would affect test results.
Montreal’s liberal rep and Canada’s socially progressive policies might also make the results unique to the region.
“It is possible that healthier and hardier lesbians, gays and bisexuals are more likely to partake in such studies than LBGs struggling with psychosocial, distress and difficulties self-identifying as sexual minorities,” the authors wrote.
GayTampaCowboy
Let’s keep this study in perspective…..gay folks who have COME OUT have lower stress because they are no longer trying to live a dual-life, and it frees them to move on to a new chapter in their lives.
That said, this study was done in CANADA, where gay marriage is legal! That’s a HUGE difference than in the US because gays and lesbians are still legally discriminated agains.
fagburn
So someone asked 87 gayers in Montreal how they feel about their bodies?
This is kind of definitive, isn’t it?
WOW!
QJ201
Straight men: They want sex, but then treat women like sluts for giving them sex and have no respect for women.
Straight women: Stop treating your pussy as a commodity to be traded for goods and services. Stop using sex to get what you want.
I swear if heteros could just stop being so damn judgmental about sex and just get laid for chrissakes the world would be a different place.
EGO
Maybe if straight men took the time to discover who they are instead of listening to the rhetoric passed down to them by religious and bigotted people, they could move on. This is something that gay people have to do. I was brought up to be a straight, Morman, male in Boise, Idaho. I knew that I was not straight and there were a lot of hypocrites in the Morman Church. I came out in the Navy in 1960, decided to live my life as a gay person in 1961, met my lifetime partner in 1962 in Boston, and we married in 2004 in Massachusetts.
Bob LaBlah
I would question the timing of this survey. During the winter months people tend to be more depressed because their is less daylight and it tends to be colder. During the summer months the weather is warmer, people go outside, mingle more and tend to be happier.
*
The age bracket used for this survey brings no surprise. At that age many tend to not realize that their genetics ARE the reason why regardless of practically moving into the gym they do not develop bubble butts, twenty-three inch arms and other such foolishness that todays youth base beauty on. God forbid let’s not go into walking out of college with a MBA and being told you will take $35k per year or we (the company) will recruit from India a candidate who will do it for $27k per year and not complain.
*
Thank god I came along at the time I did and can look back and be happy that I am retired and do not have the social problems these kids now have. Though I do miss my friends who passed away way before AZT (remember that garbage?) was even on the drawing board.
Cam
Gee, what a shock, gay people that learned how to deal with constant stress as children handle stress later in life better than straight men.
LandStander
Whenever you read the results of the study, check out a few things…
-Sample size: is 87 people enough to make such a broad statement?
-Randomization: how were these respondents collected? Whoever wanted to sign up? Asking every third person who entered a certain building?
-Independence: Are the results independent? Since all of them were collected from a single city, this is highly doubtful, and certainly not representative of the larger population.
-Questions: All the article says is “subjects were asked to fill out a questionnaire for depression, anxiety, and burnout. All of these things are highly subjective, and if the questions were like “How depressed do you feel, on a scale of 1 – 10” then it is even more hazy.
Get me a study with 1,000 or 2,000 randomly selected individuals, then we might have results that actually mean something.
LadyL
@EGO: You are so in my cool books!
LadyL
In other news Tuesday, following Monday, preceded Wedneday.
kennetho9322
@GayTampaCowboy: You’re quite correct! I live in the Great White North and feel like I’m stressed everyday. Who were these people that were interviewed? On the plus side: it’s also likely that gays seek out medical advice more often than our straight conterparts; due to fear of STD’s etc. And many LGBT&Q communities have social support structures that don’t exist for heterosexuals. Guess we’re just lucky??!!
Shakti69
So Gay man are less stressed than straight men, while straight women are less stressed than lesbians, it seems like having sex with men must reduce stress
Daggerman
…this is no surprise—because all the men who remain in the closet and can’t decide what to do are far more fearful of society, they’re far more touchy about sex and stuff—and appear as snappy and sad—-lets be honest here: Straight men (so called) are incredibly busy pleasing females that they forget how to enjoy themselves. FACT.
Basile2013
Of course straight are more stressed, as an ex-escort i can tell you that most of my clientel was straight that didn’t get any at home. the women don’t put out and these guys looked for relief, and satisfaction. The women thinks they’re in charge of their sexuality, duhhh , nope!! The guys go where the action is. If women stopped playing hard to get or stopped having a headake ,and start putting out… the guys would stay home. Lunchtime was the busiest for me and my “kind” .Indeed, the best time for them, not to arouse suspicions about late hours of work,lol.
Basile2013
@QJ201:
LOl your dam right, read my comment, you’ll see what i mean.