Body count refers to the number of people a person has had intercourse with in their life.
Two researchers from the University of Utah and Oklahoma sought to explore having a high body count using data from various sources.
What’s the effect of having a high body count?
1. Less marital satisfaction
These researchers discovered that men and women who had more premarital sex partners were shown to be less satisfied with their marriages, according to Legkauskas and Stankeviciene (2009).
Lower marital satisfaction was also indicated by early sexual activity in women. In contrast, those who only reported having sex with their prospective husbands before marriage typically reported higher-quality marriages than their counterparts who reported having sex with other people before marriage (Wolfinger, 2018a; Rhoades and Stanley, 2014).
2. High divorce rate
People who had several sexual partners before getting married report higher divorce rates, which is consistent with this pattern, even if there is no linear relationship between the number of premarital sex partners and divorce rates.
Women who marry as virgins seem to have much lower divorce rates. This might be because some religions discourage sex before marriage.
3. Unhappy marriages
Having sex before marriage does not lead to divorce for either a man or a woman. Rather, people who have had several sexual partners before being married are also more likely to be the ones who decide to end an unhappy marriage.
The effect of premarital sex on marital stability was shown to be fully explained by sample selection, according to Kahn and London (1991).
4. Reduces the chances of getting marriage
Some studies found that having multiple sexual partners reduced the likelihood of getting married. The researcher used the National Survey of Gender (NSFG), which has a large sample size, to provide insight into marginal marital behaviour. Here’s what they found:
- Almost all (95%) women who only had one partner were married by 40, and their husband was likely that partner.
- The marriage rate went down slightly for women with two partners (89% married).
- Surprisingly, women who never had sex (87%) had a similar marriage rate to those with two partners.
- Things changed for women with more than five partners. Their chances of getting married by age 40 dropped.
- For example, only 76% of women with 6–9 partners were married by 40.
- This dropped even lower (67%) for women with 10 or more partners.
5. STIs and Cancers
The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing discovered that having several sexual partners raises the chance of STIs, which can have a negative impact on one’s health later in life. According to the study, having ten or more sexual partners over the course of a lifetime raised the chance of receiving a cancer diagnosis, as well as the risk of contracting HPV, which can cause a variety of cancers, as well as Hepatitis B and C and HIV.
