Romantic and sexual relationships often play a major role in people’s well-being. That is why it is important to investigate the factors that contribute to both voluntary and involuntary sexlessness.Laura Wesseldijk, researcher at Amsterdam UMC: “Romantic and sexual relationships are often important sources of social support. We see that their absence can be linked to loneliness, anxiety, feelings of depression, and a lower sense of well-being.”
Pattern of characteristics
The main source used by the researchers for their analyses was data from more than 400,000 British people aged between 39 and 73. Approximately one percent of participants reported never having had sexual intercourse. Sexlessness was defined in the study as “the absence of sexual intercourse, including vaginal, oral, or anal sex”. The study examined more than 250 different factors to see if they were associated with sexlessness, including education, tobacco and alcohol use, introversion, mental health, and physical strength. “We see a pattern of people who are more socially withdrawn and therefore have more difficulty finding a partner,” says co-researcher Brendan Zietsch of the University of Queensland. For men, the ratio of women to men living in the region also played a role. In addition, sexlessness was more common in regions with greater income inequality. This study cannot provide explanations for the results; further research is needed.
Genetic variants
The researchers also examined genetic data.Abdel Abdellaoui, a geneticist at Amsterdam UMC, performed the genetic analyses and explains: “Approximately fifteen percent of the differences in sexlessness among people in later life appeared to be explained by thousands of genetic variants, each with a very small effect. We studied one of these variants in ancient human DNA from up to 12,000 years ago, and we saw that this variant has become increasingly rare in the course of recent evolution.” This might be because people who do not have sexual intercourse do not reproduce. Sexlessness is therefore an interesting measure for studying evolutionary processes in humans.”
No value judgement
The researchers emphasise that their findings do not imply any value judgement. For some people, “not having sex” is a conscious choice. This study identifies the many factors associated with sexlessness. According to co-researcherKarin Verweij, professor of Genetics in Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC, this study underlines that sexlessness is a complex interplay of biological and social factors: “It is emphatically not about a ‘gene for virginity’. Our results show that environmental factors, personality, and genetics all contribute. The correlations found do not say much about cause and effect, but they do show that various factors are associated with sexlessness.”
Follow-up research
The many factors linked to sexlessness in this fundamental study offer new starting points for follow-up research. This applies to research into sexlessness in relation to mental health and well-being, as well as to evolutionary questions. After all, sexlessness directly affects reproductive success: the extent to which an organism succeeds in passing on its genes to the next generation.
Read the publication in PNAS: Life without sex: Large-scale study links sexlessness to physical, cognitive, and personality traits, socioecological factors, and DNA
Source (in Dutch): Seksloosheid is een complex samenspel van biologische en sociale factoren’ | Amsterdam UMC
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