AUTHOR=Wu Pengfei , Akram Paziliya , Kadeer Kaheerman , Aisha Maimaitili , Cheng Xiaojiang , Wang Zengliang , Maimaiti Aierpati 

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

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2024.1349137

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2024.1349137

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Objective</title><p>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.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>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 (<italic>n</italic> = 406,457) and the lifetime number of sexual partners (<italic>n</italic> = 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.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>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, <italic>p</italic>-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, <italic>p</italic>-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, <italic>p</italic>-value: 0.415, 95% CI: 0.659–2.749; SAH group: OR: 1.042, <italic>p</italic>-value: 0.943, 95% CI: 0.338–3.209; uIA group: OR: 1.990, <italic>p</italic>-value: 0.273, 95% CI: 0.581–6.814).</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Conclusion</title><p>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.</p></sec>