Condoms are designed to keep things in the bedroom safe, but even they are no match for what scientists are now calling “sexomes.”
The journal iScience published a study on Wednesday that discovered these sexomes, which are traces of genital microbiomes left behind during intercourse. These even stay behind when a condom is used, according to the study. If you’re wondering how this was determined, iScience studied 12 monogamous heterosexual couples.
They took swab samples after a period of abstinence for two to four days and then after sex was initiated. The process continued for a second round that saw the couples abstain from sex for up to two weeks before another analysis.
Turns Out We All Have a ‘Genital Fingerprint’ Called Sexomes
That’s when scientists uncovered this “unique collection of microbes in their nether regions.” These microbes are very, very small organisms that are unable to be seen without the assistance of a microscope. There was a greater number of sexomes found in females than males, though the latter exhibited a larger variety of bacterial species.
“When we compared the before and after samples we could see bacterial DNA signatures from the female on the male and the male on the female,” Brendan Chapman, a forensic scientist in Australia, shared.
This discovery is something the scientists are hoping can be utilized to analyze assault victims when the standard DNA sperm sample test doesn’t come back with anything. This analysis takes samples from the victim’s body and is designed to locate male DNA, but the success rate on this is moderate at about a 50-50 rate, according to Science Direct.
There’s still a long way to go, though, before that can be enacted. Chapman said “We’ve only scratched the surface in demonstrating this as a technique for use in real cases” but that they plan on hosting more experiments with a larger group to flesh out their findings.
“We still need more participants to make sure that we can reliably develop a test that’s suitable for the robust validation that forensics science requires,” Chapman revealed.
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