The 60s as often described as a time of free love, promiscuity and general good times all round. But now it seems that the current generations are having more sexual partners than their mothers.
Research has shown that the average 24 year-old has had 6 partners, compared to women of the sixties who were likely to have had 3.72 partners. Lloyds Pharmacy commissioned the study to demonstrate how the increase in sexual partners has put women at greater risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection like chlamydia.
A spokeperson for the pharmacy also pointed out that despite better screening for cervical cancer, the rates of cervical cancer in under-25s has not declined, possibly because women are having more sexual partners and so are more likely to catch human papilloma virus, linked to the majority of cases of cervical cancer.
Cervical cancer affects around 3,000 women a year, though only 50 cases of the illness each year are in the under-25 age group. Cancer charity Jo’s Trust warned that there needed to be caution before ascribing any cause to the relatively stable rates the of cancer in young women.
Incidences of sexually transmitted infections like chlamydia and gonorrhoea however have been steadily rising and have been attributed to an increase in the number of sexual partners, as well as ignorance of the prevalence of STIs and indifference to the risks of unprotected sex.