Mon, April 4, 2005
Word of mouth: Oral sex OK in Grade 9?
By AP
ABOUT ONE in five ninth-graders report having had oral sex and almost one-third say they intend to try during the next six months, a small study of California teens reports. The teenagers, whose average age was 14 1/2, also say oral sex is less risky, more common and more acceptable for their age group than intercourse.
The researchers surveyed 580 ethnically diverse ninth-graders in two California public high schools.
Girls and boys reported similar experiences and opinions about oral sex, which surprised the study's lead author, Bonnie Halpern-Felsher of the University of California San Francisco.
"I think the stereotypes don't exist as much anymore," she said.
"Girls and boys both see oral sex as not being a big deal."
The study appears in April's edition of the journal Pediatrics.
While there's little reliable data on the health risks, parents and health care providers can tell teenagers that there is potential for getting herpes, hepatitis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis and HIV from oral sex.
SELF-IMAGE AFFECTED
And parents can discuss how oral sex might affect a teenager's relationships and self-image, Halpern-Felsher said.
The study, although limited by the small number of teens surveyed, is interesting, said Dr. Robert Blum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
"Adults are sitting there yelling at each other about abstinence, condoms, oral contraception and abortion, and kids have found their own path," Blum said.
"That's the most important issue that underlies these data: Adults are more clueless than we would like to admit."
In the survey, the teens were asked to imagine themselves in a dating situation that included unprotected oral sex with a partner who had had previous sexual intercourse with other partners.
The teenagers were then asked to estimate the chance that they would get various sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and the chance that they would experience social and emotional costs such as feeling guilty or getting a bad reputation.
