Teens and Sex

In the news this morning I read about a study in which researchers reported teenagers are having less sex. Sexual activity among high school students, they say, decreased while condom use increased. A closer look at the data compiled from twenty-two federal agencies, however, reveals the six-percent dip in sexual involvement was more specifically a decrease in the number "having had sexual intercourse."

My ob-gyn friend and co-author, Bill Cutrer, had this to say about "teens having less sex": "I'm pretty skeptical. It doesn't jibe with what I'm seeing. Maybe they should rephrase the question away from 'sexual intercourse.' Since [the Clinton/Lewinski scandal], that has a very narrow meaning. I'm thinking the sexual 'experience' remains on the rise, it's just one that has no risk of pregnancy, and finding the STDs after oral contact is a bit trickier."