If you ever believed that bisexuality is just the first step towards becoming lesbian, you might be wrong. Scientists claim that women who are bisexual, are not actually undetermined about their sexual identity, but have a distinctive sexual orientation.

A new research conducted by University of Utah shows that bisexuality is a sexual orientation and not a transitional phase towards becoming lesbian.

Lisa Diamond, a leading researcher and psychologist was keeping track of lives of 79 non-heterosexual women, who were 18 to 25 years old at the beginning of the study. All respondents were divided into three groups; bisexual, unlabeled and lesbian.

According to the results of the study, bisexual and and women from unlabeled group were more likely to change their sexual orientation but they were more inclined to identify themselves with bisexual and unlabeled than lesbian or heterosexual.

Only 17 percent of bisexual and unlabeled women identified themselves with heterosexual later but more than half of them returned to their initial orientation.

By the end of the study, most of the respondents had long-term relationships: 70 percent of lesbian women, 89 percent of bisexual and 85 of unlabeled women, giving the evidence that bisexual women are settled about their sexual identity.

The research revealed that women who identified themselves as bisexual ten years ago stayed bisexual through the course of the study irrespective of the fact that they had relationships with a man or a woman.

It was also suggested by other scientists that bisexuality is more common among women than men. Diamond said that women are more flexible when it comes to sexuality and are more likely to be turned on by both men and women even if they are lesbian or straight. Men tend to be more specific in terms of sexuality and gay men are aroused by men, while heterosexual men respond to women.