Sexuality Pregnancy and Childrearing AmongWomen With Schizophrenia-Spectmm Disorders

TLDR: In this article, the authors compared the sexual, reproduction, and childrearing characteristics of women with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders with those of women without serious mental illness, and found that women with schizophrenic disorders had more lifetime sexual partners, were less likely to have a current partner, and were more likely to engage in prostitution.

Abstract: Objective: This study compared sexuality, reproduction, and childrearing characteristics of women with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders with those of women without serious mental illness. Methods: A semistructured interview was given to 46 women meeting Research Diagnostic Criteria for schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and to 50 control subjects without major mental illness who were matched for age, race, education, employment status, and religion. Results: Compared with the control subjects, the women with schizophrenic disorders had more lifetime sexual partners, were less likely to have a current partner, and were more likely to have been raped and to have engaged in prostitution. Despite being at high risk for HIV infection,