G8 Summit Riots Took Toll On Sex Drive

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ROME (Reuters) - Riots that dominated a G8 summit in Genoa in 2001 suppressed the sex drive of its residents and led to a sharp decline in births in the city, a study showed on Wednesday.

In the ninth month after the riots, birth rates dropped off 29 percent compared to the average birth rate on the same dates over the three previous years, the study carried out by San Martino hospital showed. Even 11 months after the clashes, birth rates were 20 percent lower.

"Violent demonstrations can cause a stress reaction with negative consequences for sexual drive and reproductive activity," the author of the study, Aldo Franco De Rose, told Italian news agency ANSA.

As part of the study, 402 residents were asked if they had had less sex after the riots. A third of respondents said yes and just over half said they suffered from anxiety.

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