People with non-heterosexual sexual orientation frequently face stigmadiscrimination complex. Beside, persons who meet criteria for social anxiety disorder (SAD) present annoying symptoms in social situations when they could be evaluated or may be the victims of teasing or rejection. However, there is no systematic review showing the magnitude of this association. Objective: To review the association between sexual orientation and social anxiety disorder in observational studies during the last

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... twenty years. Method: It was performed a systematic review in the Virtual Health Library, Medline, PsycArticles and Scopus. Key words were homosexuality, sexual orientation, sexual behavior, social anxiety disorder, social phobia, mental disorders and mental health. The search was limited to published studies involving adults between January 1997 and December 2016. A qualitative analysis of the studies was performed and Odds Ratios (ORs) were calculated, if they were not reported. Results: Revision included five studies that showed a statistically significant association between in particular bisexuality, and SAD, OR between 1.9 and 3.5,. Conclusions: Nonheterosexual orientations are associated with SAD. It is important to consider counseling in people who meet criteria for SAD and the role played by the stigma-discrimination complex by counseling. More studies addressing this relationship from social and cultural perspective are needed in Latin America.