Eine frühe sexuelle Initiation beschleunigt die körperliche Alterung, wie eine große genetische Studie zeigt. Personen, die eine genetische Veranlagung für eine frühe sexuelle Initiation haben, haben mit größerer Wahrscheinlichkeit eine kürzere Lebenserwartung und eine erhöhte körperliche Gebrechlichkeit.
Early sexual initiation accelerates physical aging, large genetic study finds
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-Having sexual intercourse at an earlier age may set off a chain of biological and behavioral events that accelerates the aging process later in life. A massive new genetic study reveals that individuals genetically predisposed to early sexual initiation are more likely to experience a shorter lifespan and increased physical frailty. The research was [published](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S3050613126000021?via%3Dihub) in the journal Healthcare and Rehabilitation.
Researchers view human health through a long-term framework known as the full life cycle perspective. This model assumes that events occurring during childhood and adolescence cast long shadows over adult health and disease progression. The timing of a person’s first sexual experience marks a major biological and behavioral milestone in early human development.
Past research has linked early sexual experiences to immediate health risks. These risks include higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, an increased likelihood of multiple sexual partners, and unintended teenage pregnancies. Medical experts suspect that the physiological changes tied to early puberty might slowly damage cellular structures. For example, an early onset of puberty means the body is exposed to sex hormones for a longer duration, a scenario that researchers believe increases oxidative stress and damages genetic material.
Early unplanned pregnancies can generate chronic psychological stress that wears down the immune and cardiovascular systems over decades. Lead researcher Kaixian Wang of Shandong University in China and colleagues set out to map these long-term connections. They wanted to know if this specific early life event could actually alter the biological trajectory of growing old. Aging itself is the ultimate consequence of a life course, defined by a gradual decline in bodily functions and the eventual accumulation of chronic diseases.
Interesting. What about blasting ropes in your bedroom constantly at age 13? Just curious, no real reason why.
Any chance this is correlated with risk taking or impulsivity? Was that controlled for?
The sheer amount of lifetime stress on survivors of sexual abuse as children placed on them by society alone is the worst culprit for this. The deleterious effects of chronic stress from minor to severe are serious and yes, include physical & psychological frailty as well as shortened life spans.
Identity formation is such a a crucial period of life, and how popular culture as well as many subcultural elements inform a developing individual on the roles of being a CSA survivor are wilting and highly destructive.
Life history theory would like a word….
I would bet on testosterone.
Makes you a horny hothead.
I’m living forever then!
Is that even a real journal it’s published in
How is sexual initiation defined?
So my ho ass is fucked, eh?
Then explain the 100 year old women with 7 kids and a great-great grandson on the way
So….most of Reddit is going to live a long, long time.
Definitely secondary to poverty
So us nerds at school who couldn’t get any will outlive the glory days jocks and the cool kids. Finally feel better about it decades later
What I can’t tell from this is, what is „early“? 16?
Too much love will kill you,
if you can make up your mind…
Ok, but what the hell were the controls. I extremely doubt „having wanted sex“ is the cause, here.
Far more likely that the issue is unwanted contact, abuse, poverty causing stress, or even just early development.
Unsurprisingly, if you sexually mature too early, it causes physical problems down the line. Hence puberty blockers.
„Just say no“ wouldn’t stop that. This reads like they’re blaming a common correlation of a myriad of factors as the cause itself.
Looks like I’m living forever!!!
Once you’ve reproduced you’ve served your evolutionary purpose. Makes sense that the biological clock ticks faster afterwards.
What if I started masturbating as a kid?
Consistent with life history theory aside from the implied causation.
Is this why some people peak in high school?
Great, being a virgin AND living longer
What classifies as ‘early’? Pubescent? 18? I feel like there are different markers biologically and socially and I couldn’t find that in the article or study, granted didn’t read super closely
This is in line with prior works on polygenic scores for externalizing.
Externalizing refers to behaviors related to lack of self-regulation : hyperactivity, antisocial behavior, number of sexual partners, substance use and others show genetic correlations. This means the variants that predict one often predict others.
Antisocial behavior, ADHD and substance use are linked to poorer health and life expectancy.
The study (OP’s) even finds ADHD helped explain the relationship.
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-021-00908-3](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-021-00908-3)
Yay for pseudoscience
How in the world did you find the study group for this and follow them all their lives
I guess the phrase, “peaked in high school” really had some science behind it.
Eventually, Something’s gonna kill you.
The title of the article asserts two entirely different things. The first claim is that an experience (sexual intercourse earlier than some unspecified age) *causes* faster aging. The second claim is that certain genetic factors are *associated with* shorter lifespan and more “frailty” (something that stands in for physical aging, although I don’t know exactly what it constitutes).
The study was done to test a theoretical framework that argues experiences early in life greatly affect later health — including not just chronic experiences such as hunger or an abusive upbringing but the *single* experience of first sexual intercourse.
I wouldn’t be surprised if earlier puberty is associated with faster aging, because that’s true of the majority of animal species. This study doesn’t convince me that your age when you lose your virginity influences your aging process. It’s possible that early puberty causes earlier sex, but that would show an association, not a direct influence.
To provide evidence for their theory they need to show that the age of first intercourse correlates *more* closely with aging than does the age of puberty. I can’t follow the statistics in the article itself so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but I didn’t see any such evidence in the results.
And this kind of study can’t determine causation. So the title of the article is wrong there.