Adults who were born prematurely are more likely to remain life-long virgins and never form romantic relationships, research has found.
Analysis of studies covering about 4.4 million adults has shown those who were born pre-term are twice as likely to remain virgins, and less likely to experience parenthood.
Researchers at the University of Warwick believe this is partly because premature birth is associated with people who are more withdrawn and shy, and can be less likely to take risks in adolescence.
Analysis found those born pre-term were 28% less likely to form a romantic relationship and 22% less likely to become parents, compared with those born at full-term.
The researchers looked at studies of sexual relations of pre-term individuals and found they were 2.3 times less likely to ever have a sexual partner.
Those born before the 28-week mark were more than three times less likely to have sex.
First author of the paper, Dr Marina Goulart de Mendonca, said: "The finding that adults who were born pre-term are less likely to have a partner, to have sex and become parents does not appear to be explained by a higher rate of disability.''
