Swingers have high rates of STIs

With age comes wisdom, but not if you are a swinger it seems.

Swingers - straight couples who regularly swap sexual partners at organised gatherings and clubs and indulge in group sex - have rates of sexually transmitted infections on a par with young heterosexuals and gay men, both recognised high risk groups for STIs.

The oldest swingers in town over the age of 45 are most at risk from infections, the research reveals.

Dutch researchers from the South Limburg Public Health Service in Geleen tracked the rate of sexually transmitted infections amongst swingers who attended three sexual health clinics between 2007 and 2008. The clinics serve a population of 630,000 people.

During the study period, there were just under 9,000 consultations at the three clinics. One in nine of the patients was a swinger, with an average age of 43.

Overall, the combined rates of chlamydia and gonorrhoea were just over 10 per cent among straight people, 14 per cent among gay men, just under five per cent in female prostitutes, and 10.4 per cent among swingers.

Female swingers were found to have higher infection rates than male swingers.

More than half of people diagnosed with an STI over the age of 45 were swingers compared with around a third in gay men.

And one in 10 of the older swingers had chlamydia and around one in 20 had gonorrhoea.

The findings are published online in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Unlike young heterosexual people and gay men, swingers are largely an unrecognised risk group for STIs, the authors warned, especially as the number of people involved in swinging is probably high.

“Although exact estimates are unavailable, the swingers’ population is probably large. One of the largest dating websites for swingers estimates that there are millions of swingers worldwide,” they said.

“Potentially they (swingers) may act as an STI transmission bridge to the entire population.”

Rebecca Findlay from the Family Planning Association said: " The lesson from this study for British swingers is that they're a risk group for STIs. If they're off swinging they need to organise condoms and use them."

This article was published on Thu 24 June 2010