Posted on 04/04/2005 8:20:42 AM PDT by stm
CHICAGO (Reuters) - One in five U.S. teenagers say they have engaged in oral sex, an activity that some adolescents view as not sex at all and certainly less risky than intercourse, a report released Monday said.
The survey of 580 children with a mean age of 14-1/2 found 20 percent said they had engaged in oral sex, compared to 14 percent who said they had engaged in sexual intercourse.
In addition, one-third of the multi-ethnic 9th graders surveyed said they intended to have oral sex within the next six months and nearly one-fourth planned to have intercourse during the period. It was more common for boys to have performed oral sex on girls than vice versa, the report said.
Previous studies and numerous campaigns aimed at deterring teenaged sex have focused on intercourse, but as many as half of adolescents experience oral sex first, the report said.
The risk of transmitting infections, including HIV, is significantly less with oral sex than with intercourse but is likely underestimated by teenagers, said the report in the journal Pediatrics.
Youngsters who engage in oral sex rarely used condoms or dental dams, even though herpes, hepatitis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis as well as the virus that causes AIDS can all be transmitted orally, it added.
"Given the suggestion that adolescents do not view oral sex as sex and see oral sex as a way of preserving their virginity while still gaining intimacy and sexual pleasure, they are likely to interpret sexual health messages as referring to vaginal sex," wrote lead author Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, a pediatrician at the University of California, San Francisco.
"Adolescents also believed that oral sex is more acceptable than vaginal sex for adolescents their own age in both dating and non-dating situations, oral sex is less of a threat to their values and beliefs, and more of their peers will have oral sex than vaginal sex in the near future," she wrote.
All together now, "Thank you, WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON."
Everybody knows that Oral sex is not Real sex..........BJC....
And a fetus is not really a baby. Don't forget that one.
That's saying a mouthful.
Clinton Legacy ping
ROTFLMAO
Just another example of the clinton legacy leaving a bad taste in your mouth.
Words that should really never be used in the same sentence.
I liked the baseball analogy. In this sense, kissing is the start of sex, but not really sex. Kissing is all right. Next comes petting above the waist, (first base) Now this is more exciting, but is it sex yet? Well we get to petting below the waist, now we are really excited, but it is only getting close to sex. (third base) Although some people can't stop themselves at this point, apparently some people do. If they stop is it sex? Now I don't know about the oral--below the waist petting, this seems like more than third base, maybe an attempt at stealing home? I could understand that this is sex, it seems like it to me.
So finally we have it, sex is not sex unless you score and a run is tallied on the scoreboard for your team. I think I have it now. Very clear. But also clearly we parents have some explaining to do about what is ok and what is not.
"I did not have sex with that woman...or with the fine females at McKenna's sheep farm."
From the mouths of babes...
Looks like I gotta start hanging out with a younger crowd.
Owl_Eagle
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
And the rise in throat gonorrhea is not really a rise, because only sex leads to STDs and oral sex isn't sex.
More of the Clinton "legacy."
What happened to second base?
Does the infield fly rule apply to oral sex?
Sadly, this is true. At my daughter's high school the girls give out BJ's like it's no big deal. They don't have to be going out with the guy, they just have to like him a little bit.
I wonder what long-term affect this will have on the little darlings and their ability to have stable, trusting relationships?
So what is Sex?
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