Lloyds Pharmacy released a calculator that can tell, based on the number of sexual partners, to how many people has someone actually been sexually exposed to.
Aptly called the Sex Degrees of Separation, the calculator made by Lloyds Pharmacy is based on the Six Degrees of Separation theory, a belief that everyone can be interconnected by merely six connections. Based on this idea, the calculator uses a user's number of partners and their ages combined with the number of possible people their partners also had relationships with.
"We take the number of partners you've had and what age they were when you last slept together, we multiply this by the number of partners they are statistically likely to have had, and by the partners of those partners, and the partners of those partners, and so on by six degrees," Lloyds Pharmacy stated in its blog.
While by no means accurate, Lloyds claims that the tool does give users an idea on how exposed they could be to sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
"Your risk of being exposed to an STI increases exponentially with each new partner," said Dr. Gigi Taguri of Lloyds Pharmacy. "But importantly it's not just your direct partners that you have to worry about, but your partners' partners, and their partners' partners, and so on. They are indirect sexual connections."
Based on a survey also conducted by Lloyds Pharmacy, adults ages 35 to 44 are the ones who have the highest average number of sexual partners, followed closely by those in the 25 to 34 age group. About one of every three people doesn't always practice safe sex measures with new partners, and at least 53 percent claiming to be too drunk during sex to do so. One out of six said that they never had themselves tested for STI, believing they don't need to, and that as the older people get, the less likely they would have gotten tested. Surprisingly, the survey also revealed that one out five participants who had STIs did not tell past partners.
The calculator's release was meaningfully timed with sexual health week which runs from Sept. 14 to 21 in hopes to promote the tool's key message on safe sex. Taguri emphasized strongly on the need to use condoms and get regularly checked for STIs.
"Whether you regularly engage in casual sex or just haven't had an STI test before, ensuring you always have condoms means you will be protected against the risk of the most common STIs," she advised.
