The genetics of virginity… or not

Image by my beautiful friend Ell at Wilfuldamage.

I’ve been sitting on this one for a few days, and it’s in tomorrow’s column — but it’s got enough controversy to stand on its own as a solo post for sure. In Genes May Time Loss of Virginity a study is examined that looked at whether genes have anything to do with the age one loses one’s virginity. Lotsa flaws (IMHO — like, how does rape / family incest factor in here?) but when you look past the veil there are some nuggets about genetics and sexual impulse control. You decide:

Sexual precociousness is in our genes, new research suggests. A unique study of twins separated at birth finds a genetic link to the age at which a person first engages in sexual intercourse.

“It’s not like there’s a gene for having a sex at a certain date,” says Nancy Segal, a psychologist at California State University in Fullerton who led the new study. Instead, heritable behavioural traits such as impulsivity could help determine when people first have sex, she says.

As genetic determinism goes, the new findings are modest. Segal’s team found that genes explain a third of the differences in participants’ age at first intercourse – which was, on average, a little over 19 years old. By comparison, roughly 80% of variations in height across a population can be explained by genes alone.

(…) As for the specific genes involved, another team previously found that a version of a gene encoding a receptor for the neurotransmitter dopamine is associated with age at first intercourse. Others have linked the same version of the gene – called DRD4 – to impulsive, risk-taking behaviour. (…read more, newscientist.com, thanks Praemedia — and when are we getting that drink? put a cherry in mine, plz.)