Extra weight no big deal in women's sex life, study finds

PORTLAND — Extra pounds don't weigh down a woman's sex life, Hawaiian and Oregon researchers have found.

On average, overweight and obese women have the same number of male sexual partners during their lifetime and during a 12-month period as do healthy-weight women.

All groups report having sex for the first time at the same average age, about 17. In fact, women who are overweight and obese were more likely than normal-weight women to report ever having sex with a man.

Researchers came to those conclusions using a survey of 7,600 women from the National Center for Health Statistics. Once they weeded out pregnant women and those who didn't report their weight, researchers had about 6,700 women left to study.

"Physicians and others can come in with a preconceived notion about sexual activity based on body weight," says Bliss Kaneshiro, the study's lead author. "This tells us we should really be treating women of all body weights equally."