(79) “SEXUAL RECESSION” IN THE MAINSTREAM AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS: AND YET SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS (STIS) ARE ON THE RISE

In France, 2022/02, a survey (IFOP pour Sidaction, people aged 15 to 24) found that 44% of those polled had not had sex in the past year. This trend seems also to be confirmed in the USA, as shown by Professor Twenges's work, including a lack of interest for masturbation. Our study aims to highlight the today's possible causes of sexual inactivity, and to compare observations with sexual health data concerning STIs, abortion, after-morning pill, use of dating applications and use of pornography.

Review of the mainstream online press for the last five years with the keywords in french and in english sexual recession, sexual inactivity, decline in sexual activity. Review of the scientific literature on PubMed and Google Scholar for the last five years with the keywords sexual recession, sexual inactivity.

Mainstream press and scientific literature agree to describe a decline in sexual activity, especially among those under 30. Causes are numerous, sexological (lack of sexual pleasure, sexual dysfunction, other), or not: psychological (anxiety, depression, bad self-esteem), societal (breakdown in social ties), iatrogenic, aesthetic (overweight), cultural (social media, video games), adverse socio-economic conditions (unemployment, students). The most surprising is the lack of perspective of these observations with sexual health data. Indeed public health data seem to challenge a situation of sexual recession. Especially in France, the HIV infection rates continues, the abortion rate does not decrease, for chlamydia and gonococci rates increase (Bulletin de Santé Publique VIH-IST 2021). According to World Health Organization, “more than 1 million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are acquired every day worldwide”. Pornographic video viewing constitutes 25% of global video traffic.

Since a few years, the journalistic and scientific sources describe in various medias a “sexual recession” in different countries. The examination of sexual health data seem to challenge these observations and requires further studies.

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