UNITED KINGDOM: How Many People Have You Slept With, 2.8 Million?

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

UNITED KINGDOM: How Many People Have You Slept With, 2.8 Million?

Agence France Presse (09.23.09) - Friday, October 23, 2009

To call attention to the risk of STDs, British drug chain Lloyd's Pharmacy has launched an online calculator to give site visitors a better sense of their exposure to the infections. "Sex Degrees of Separation" asks users to enter their number of lifetime sexual partners, together with other data; then it calculates the number of people they were, by extension, exposed to. The company reports that the average British man and woman claim to have had sex with 9.0 people and 6.3 people, respectively, for a national average of 7.65. But by extrapolation, this means the average person has been indirectly exposed to 2.8 million people. "When we sleep with someone, we are, in effect, not only sleeping with them, but also their previous partners and their partners' previous partners, and so on," said Clare Kerr, the chain's chief of sexual health. "It's important that people understand how exposed they are to [STDs] and take appropriate precautions, including using condoms and getting themselves checked out where appropriate." To access the calculator, visit http://calculators.lloydspharmacy.com/SexDegrees/#.
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