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. 2024 Jun 4:15:1349137.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1349137. eCollection 2024.

Early sexual activity lowers the incidence of intracranial aneurysm: a Mendelian randomization investigation

Pengfei Wu #  1 , Paziliya Akram #  1 , Kaheerman Kadeer  1 , Maimaitili Aisha  1 , Xiaojiang Cheng  1 , Zengliang Wang  1 , Aierpati Maimaiti  1
Affiliations

Early sexual activity lowers the incidence of intracranial aneurysm: a Mendelian randomization investigation

Pengfei Wu et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Objective: Investigate the potential correlation between the age of initial sexual contact, the lifetime accumulation of sexual partners, and the occurrence of intracranial aneurysm (IA) employing a two-sample Mendelian randomization approach.

Methods: This research aims to elucidate the causal relationship between intracranial aneurysm (IA) and sexual variables. Two distinct sexual variables, specifically the age had first sexual intercourse (n = 406,457) and the lifetime number of sexual partners (n = 378,882), were employed as representative parameters in a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study. Outcome data from 23 cohorts, comprising 5,140 cases and 71,934 controls, were gathered through genome-wide association studies (GWAS). To bolster analytical rigor, five distinct methodologies were applied, encompassing MR-Egger technique, weighted median, inverse variance weighted, simple modeling, and weighted modeling.

Results: Our investigation unveiled a causal relationship between the age first had sexual intercourse and the occurrence of intracranial aneurysm (IA), employing the Inverse Variance Weighted (IVW) approach [Odds Ratio (OR): 0.609, p-value: 5.684E-04, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.459-0.807]. This association was notably significant in the context of unruptured intracranial aneurysms (uIA) using the IVW approach (OR: 0.392, p-value: 6.414E-05, 95% CI: 0.248-0.621). Conversely, our findings did not reveal any discernible link between the lifetime number of sexual partners and the occurrence of IA (IA group: OR: 1.346, p-value: 0.415, 95% CI: 0.659-2.749; SAH group: OR: 1.042, p-value: 0.943, 95% CI: 0.338-3.209; uIA group: OR: 1.990, p-value: 0.273, 95% CI: 0.581-6.814).

Conclusion: The two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) study presented herein provides evidence supporting a correlation between the age of initial engagement in sexual activity and the occurrence of intracranial aneurysm (IA), with a noteworthy emphasis on unruptured intracranial aneurysms (uIA). Nevertheless, our investigation failed to establish a definitive association between IA and the cumulative lifetime number of sexual partners.

Keywords: Mendelian randomization; intracranial aneurysm; sexual behavior; sexual intercourse; subarchinoid hemorrhage.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Visual representation of the study structure in MR. Illustration of the core principles guiding the study. MR; SNP, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The causality of lifetime number of sexual partners and Intracranial aneurysms. The odds ratios are presented for each 1-standard deviation (SD) increase in genetically determined visceral adipose tissue (VAT) mass; CI, confidence interval.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The causality of age first had sexual intercourse and Intracranial aneurysms.
Figure 4
Figure 4
A diagram of the causative relationship between AFHS and intracranial aneurysm; (A), AFHS and IA; (B), AFHS and SAH; (C), AFHS and uIA.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Evaluation of the figures for AFHS and intracranial aneurysm with a leave-one-out method; (A), AFHS and IA; (B), AFHS and SAH; (C), AFHS and uIA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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