Should parents breathe a sigh of relief? More
teens and young adults are waiting to have sex for the first time, according to
the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Twenty-seven percent of males and 29 percent
of females ages 15 to 24 reported never having had a sexual encounter with
another person, up from 22 percent for both sexes in 2002, the researchers
found.
But teens and young adults are “hooking up”
before they lose their virginity: More than 50 percent said they had oral sex
prior to engaging in vaginal intercourse, a finding that has health experts
concerned. The study’s lead author, Anjani Chandra, PhD, shared her take with
CNN, via Huffington Post: Many teens may think they’re practicing safe sex by
skipping or delaying vaginal intercourse, but they may not be aware that
unprotected oral sex still puts them at risk for sexually transmitted
infections — especially HPV, human papillomavirus, which can be transmitted
through oral sex or even skin-to-skin genital contact.
Another finding: Twice as many girls as boys
reported having a same-sex encounter (12 percent of females, compared to 5.8
percent of males). Interestingly, the number of heterosexual partners seemed to
factor in: Females with four or more male partners were likelier to hook up
with other women. And younger women were more likely to describe themselves as
bisexual than older women.
One expert says the findings validate a cultural
perception of female sexuality: "There's a popular sense that women have
more fluidity in their sexual attraction than men do," said Jack Drescher,
MD, a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City.
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