It’s written in your genes how long you stay a virgin
Print Edition
A DNA study of more than 380,000 people has uncovered a rather surprising role for human genes: helping to determine the age at which you first have sex.
Factors such as family stability, peer pressure and personality type are all known to influence whether teenagers choose to engage in sex young, or abstain until adulthood.
Now a huge gene trawl has revealed that “genes have a substantial influence” too, according to study co-author Ken Ong of the Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge.
Genetic factors “explain around 25 percent of the differences in the age when people start to have sex,” he said.
The genes likely influence such factors as the age at which puberty hits, and whether or not you posses a risk-taking personality. The average age of sexual maturity for both genders has decreased from about 18 years in 1880, to 12.5 in 1980, the study found.
Scientists have blamed changes in nutrition and the larger physical size of children today, as well as exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals.
The team said it hoped the findings will help identify and help children more prone, genetically and otherwise, to engage in risky behavior.
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