How our number of sexual partners changes as we age

decorative A new study involving UCL that aims to inform mathematical models of sexually transmitted infections shows how the number of sexual partners we have changes as we age, with some surprising findings. A team from the UCL Institute of Health Informatics, the University of East Anglia (UEA) and King's College London surveyed more than 5,000 people aged 18 years and older during the 2022 mpox (previously known as "monkeypox") outbreak. The researchers wanted to better understand how sexual behaviours change with age, so that mathematical models of sexually transmitted infections can be made more accurate. Key findings included in the paper, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, show that many gay and bisexual men over age 70 continue to have a sex life with multiple partners, while straight women become less sexually active after age 50. Co-author Professor Henry Potts (UCL Institute of Health Informatics) said: " It's not just about the average person, but about the range of behaviour we see. People of all ages and sexualities can have different sex lives. We need to make sure that this is reflected when we are modelling what can happen in a public health context and when we're planning healthcare "Or there might be an assumption that young people have the most sex.