does asexuality run in families ?

[frustr8ed]

do your brothers or sisters have the same orientation?

I'm wondering if this is genetic or learned?

[Nico-Nico Friendo]

I'm pretty sure my grandma was asexual. She said she never really enjoyed sex and found it to be a chore and 'a nuisance'. She says she's glad those days are over with and she said the only good things that came out of her marriage were her kids.

I don't know if that makes it genetic, but I'm like her, too. So it makes me wonder if there could be a genetic component. I don't know if my brother (13) is asexual or not, he may not be old enough to tell, yet. We'll see . . .

[Dargon]

I have an aunt who I suspect may be asexual.

My sister definately is not.

[Lucy Locket]

I'm pretty sure my grandma was asexual. She said she never really enjoyed sex and found it to be a chore and 'a nuisance'. She says she's glad those days are over with and she said the only good things that came out of her marriage were her kids.

Mine might be asexual too. She's been divorced for 25 years now and never been involved with another man since. She says that sex is a waste of time and not to be bothered with unless you're married, preferably not even then. She hates sharing a bed with anyone, even my little brother (she sometimes babysits for him overnight and he usually comes into her bed, in case he has an asthma attack during the night.) And always complains about the next door neighbour who brings boyfriends home for late night "fun" :roll: Her sister, my great - aunt, makes no secret that her marriage is sexless, and all three of her children are adopted. Genetic? Who knows?

[Chozo]

my first thought when I read the topic was "surely it wouldn't do that for very long :P"

For what it's worth, no I don't think it does. Not in my family anyway v:)v

[thylacine]

I think my mother might be asexual too, or has a low sex drive.

[Hallucigenia]

I'm the sister of an AVENite who doesn't post anymore (name of Slatterly) and we don't have the same orientation. Slatterly is asexual, aromantic, and pan-everything else. I'm sexual, romantic, and have vast unspoken issues about it. We also have a younger brother, but it's too early to tell with him. He's only 12.

Orientation really isn't a genetic thing. There are even identical twins who don't have the same orientation.

[KAGU143]

I think there is a good possibility that asexuality has some genetic components, but remember that it does NOT mean sterility or a lack of parental instincts, so it would be very hard to document in past generations if the people didn't happen to mention it in their memoirs.

People with little or no interest in sex would have been less inclined to engage in it for recreational purposes, but they would have been perfectly capable of reproducing. They might have even been healthier than the norm if they lived in areas with a lot of STD's.

An asexual attitude toward sex was considered morally proper only a VERY few generations ago. I can't imagine that something like this would have been made up out of thin air if everybody were *truly* as obsessed with sex as the media would have us believe.

I am FAR more inclined to believe that there were asexual people already present in substantial numbers, and that it was noticed that they were less likely to "stray" in a marriage; hence it was considered a positive attribute, not a deficiency.

There are quite a few relatives on my mother's side who have never reproduced - both male and female - so I can't totally discount the possibility of a genetic factor. My mother had 3 children who survived into adulthood. My sister has one son and (so far) two grandchildren. My brother was gay, and I'm not interested.

(My father was adopted, so I have no info from that side.)

-GB

[Dame du Lac]

Well, my great grandparents had over a dozen children born to them; my grandmother was a single mum then married and had kids in her 20s, 30s and 40s; my mother had several boyfriends before marriage, though I don't know how many, if any, she had sex with. It was still not the thing that "good girls" did and she had grown up with the stigma of being illegitimate, so may have been wary because of that.

My other grandmother married and had children in her twenties, then had two illegitimate children, by two different fathers in her thirties before remarrying and having another child in her late thirties/early forties. My father had numerous relationships, most of them involving sex, before he married my mother. My brother has been very sexually active and is very romantic. I am physically most like my father and paternal grandmother. I am on the border of being asexual in that I don't mind sexual activity but I don't really feel a connection between it and love. I would probably never have sex or a relationship again if I didn't want children.

So, no, I think asexuality/low sex drives, certainly DON'T run in my family.

[Amcan]

I don't know. One great aunt maybe.

And oddly I suspect I have a higher sex drive than my mother.

For sex drive is not related to someone being asexual or not.

[EIito]

I think it's likely that any orientation is at least somewhat heritable. Barring that, my family is an extreme anomaly.

The topic never has and never will be broached between us, but I'm about 99% certain that my mom is asexual. The details on this get long and involved, but the reasoning is quite valid, so you'll just have to trust that I'm not prescribing attributes to her for my own benefit (seeing as how I'm not particularly fond of her, this would certainly do me no good... maybe no harm, but a waste of mental effort). My mom and I are just two people, so this could be a coincidence.

The more compelling case is the men in the family. Every last man on my dad's side of the family who was born into the same generation as myself is either gay or bisexual with more of a leaning toward men than women. Skip past my dad's generation (all straight) to my grandfather's generation and it's the same situation. Interestingly enough, there is only one male born in the generation of my dad's grandkids and he's most definitely straight (my cousin's son, who is a year younger than me... such a weird family). It appears that on that side of the family, homosexuality is apparent in every other generation. It's definitely not a cohort effect or anything like that, seeing as how my brother is 20, a cousin is 40, another is 45, one is in his early 30s, and none of them spent much time around each other at all.

[ghostgurl]

No. My parents are sexual, and my brother is very sexual. :roll:

[Zealous]

When my parents found out that I identified as asexual, they blew up at me with a "You Must Be Normal!" speech. At the time, I thought it was just them being jerks. With some thought, I wonder if they may have very low sex drives themselves and not want to admit that they aren't hetero-normal.

I'm not sure about my own. In fact, I'm inclined to think not. But I will not deny that I think that asexuality can have genetic components.

[AliceInWonderland]

test

[rosalie]

test

It works. :)

[CrazyCatLover]

I'm pretty sure I'm the only asexual in my family.

Edit: I just found out that one of my second cousins identified as asexual until she was in her late 20s. But she's the only one I can think of. My immediate family certainly isn't asexual!