According to a new study led by the Medical Research Council of the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) , there are genes that can predict human sexual milestones , whether entering puberty, sexual precocity or the number of children they will have. . The discovery has been published in the journal Nature Genetics.
There are several factors that influence the time of initiation in sexual relations such as the family context or the socioeconomic situation, however, the association of these extremes with genes is something new. We are facing the first study that relates the genetic sequence and biology with sexual and reproductive behaviors.
The researchers examined data from the DNA of more than 380,000 people, finding up to 38 genetic variations associated with sexual and reproductive behaviors, such as the onset of puberty or the age of first sexual intercourse. All of these genes, or at least most of them, were involved in brain and neuronal development.
“An example is a genetic variant found in CADM2, a gene that controls brain activity. This variant has been associated with a personality more prone to taking risks, and also with sexual precocity and with a greater number of children ”, the authors of the study explain.
Age of sexual initiation
The experts analyzed genetic data from the British biobank of 59,357 men and 66,310 women aged between 40 and 69 years (within a Mendelian randomization study to determine causal relationships) and the mean age of sexual initiation was in both cases 18 years. The first child, at the age of 25.
They then replicated the results in 241,910 Icelandic men and women and in 20,187 healthy American women over 45 with European ancestry. The conclusions revealed that the age of initiation to sex and the age of the first childbirth had a moderate genetic component , both being influenced by the onset of puberty.
“We have now shown that the age of puberty can also influence young people, accelerating sexual precocity and worsening school performance,” says study co-author Ken Ong.
