This article critically examines the basis for Swedish prevention strategies and policy documents concerning sexual risk‐taking, investigating in particular how risk‐taking is represented with respect to the group of middle‐aged, heterosexual individuals. These prevention strategies and policy documents seem to be built on an assumption that sexual relationships are limited to people having sex with individuals with the same sexual orientation, age, behaviour or drug use, an assumption that can be questioned. We have made a scoping review of existing research and examined Swedish national prevention strategies, analysing policy documents on sexual risk‐taking. The results demonstrate a lack of both research and interventions targeted at middle‐aged heterosexuals. We argue that research and interventions directed to heterosexuals have strong connections to fertility. Drawing on Loseke's theorization, the explanation might be that middle‐age sexual behaviour loses the “social problem game”. The blind spots observed in research and policy can also be explained by an agreement in normativity between the different claims‐makers, such as interest groups, policymakers and politicians. © 2019 Policy Studies Organization