Study: People In Monogamous Relationships Are Just As Likely To Have An STD As Those Who Aren't (Yikes!)

Being in a committed relationship may not be as safe as you once thought. New research suggests that those in monogamous relationships are less likely to use condoms and get tested for STDs than those in open relationships. This wouldn’t be an issue if they weren’t cheating and having sex with other people, but the survey says they do.

These horrifying new findings come from a report in the current Journal of Sexual Medicine, which surveyed 554 people, and found that those who claim to be in monogamous relationships are less likely to use protection when they’re unfaithful to their partners.

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One in four of those in monogamous relationships surveyed admitted to having cheated on their partners before and close to one in five of all participants reported they had been diagnosed with an STD before. Although it might be easy to assume that cheating men are to blame for these stats, it’s important to note that most of the participants were women who averaged between the ages of 26 and 27.

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“It turns out that when monogamous people cheat, they don’t seem to be very good about using condoms,” Justin Lehmiller, a psychologist at Ball State University and author of the study, told BuzzFeed News. “People in open relationships seem to take a lot of precautions to reduce their sexual health risks.”

Yikes. Read more results from the study here.