Individuals with a genetic predisposition for earlier sexual initiation tend to have worse results in several indicators linked to aging. However, the relationship between the two is indirect.
The age at which a person has their first sexual intercourse may be associated, decades later, with other health indicators.
The suggestion comes from a new one from Shandong University, in China, which points to a possible link between earlier sexual initiation and worse health scenarios in areas such as physical frailty, mental health, chronic diseases and quality of life in advanced adulthood.
The authors resorted to Mendelian randomizationa technique that uses genetic data to try to evaluate cause and effect relationships. The objective was to understand whether people with genetic variants associated with earlier sexual intercourse showed differences in the way they aged.
According to the researchers, this association, in fact, existed: individuals with a genetic predisposition for earlier sexual initiation tended to have worse results in several indicators linked to aging, including measures of longevity, frailty and self-rated health status.
Kaixian Wang, first author of the study, highlighted that the results suggest that the moment of first sexual intercourse may be linked to aging through various psychological, behavioral and disease-related pathways, in an assessment that the authors themselves warn that must be cautious in its interpretation.
The study does not mean that a single experience determines a person’s future health, but rather that certain early experiences may be associated with other risk factors throughout life, explains .
To understand which elements could explain this link, the team analyzed 145 possible factors. Four stood out: physical frailty, depressed mood, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — often associated with smoking — and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. These results suggest that the observed relationship could involve less the sexual activity itself and more the set of circumstances that often accompany it, including mental health difficulties, risky behaviors, impulsivity and greater social or clinical vulnerability.
Despite everything, the following fundamental question remains open: does waiting longer have a direct protective effect or is it simply associated with other more favorable habits and life contexts?
