Friday, September 16, 2005

Teen sexual activity on the rise

Study shows more than half of 15- to 19-year-olds engaged in oral sex; many don't consider it a big deal.

By Laura Sessions Stepp / Washington Post

New research Bisexual experience numbers up More women -- particularly those in their late teens and 20s -- are experimenting with bisexuality or at least feel more comfortable reporting same-sex encounters, according to a report Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control. The survey found that 11.5 percent of women, ages 18 to 44, said they've had at least one sexual experience with another women in their lifetimes, compared with about 4 percent of women, ages 18 to 59, who said the same in a survey a decade earlier. Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

WASHINGTON -- Slightly more than half of American teenagers, ages 15 to 19, have engaged in oral sex, with females and males reporting similar levels of experience, according to the most comprehensive national survey of sexual behaviors ever released by the federal government.

The report, released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics, shows that the figure increases to about 70 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds.

The survey, according to those who work with young people, offers one more sign that young women are more sexually confident than they used to be. A release by the center six months ago, based on the same survey results, showed that slightly more girls than boys have intercourse before they turn 20. In addition, other national data indicate that the same proportion of high school girls and boys have sex only one time with a particular person or have relationships with others that they are not romantically involved with.

"This is a point of major social transition," said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a reproductive health organization in Washington. "The data are now coming out and roiling the idea that boys are the hunters and young girls are the prey. It absolutely defies the stereotype."

The data also underscore the fact that, unlike their parents' generation, many young people -- particularly those from middle- and upper-income white families -- simply do not consider oral sex a big deal.

"Oral sex is far less intimate than intercourse. It's a different kind of relationship," said Claire Brindis, professor of pediatrics at the University of California-San Francisco. "At 50 percent, we're talking about a major social norm. It's part of kids' lives."

Bill Albert, communications director for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, put the generational difference this way: "We used to talk about sex in terms of first base, second base and so on. Oral sex was maybe in the dugout."

Many teenagers have accepted the idea that postponing intercourse is good, Brindis said. When they weigh the advantages and disadvantages of intercourse versus other forms of sex, they decide they are far more at risk with intercourse, because of pregnancy and the greater risk of disease. The new data showed that nearly one in four virgin teens has engaged in oral sex.

"They're very smart about this issue," said Brindis, "but they may not have been given a strong enough message around the risks of oral sex. Maybe we need to do a better job of showing them they need to use condoms." Oral sex has been associated in clinical studies with gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes and the human papillomavirus, which has been linked to cervical cancer.