A new report on teen sex contradicts a popular notion that teens are turning to oral sex as a way to delay “real” intercourse. The government study shows fewer teenage girls are having oral sex, compared to a few years ago.

The study, based on in-depth interviews with 6,300 young men and women aged 15 to 24, shows two-thirds in that age group have had oral sex, and just about the same proportion have had vaginal intercourse. But just about 42 percent of 15 to 19-year-old girls have given or received oral sex, down from 45 percent when the last survey was done in 2006-2008.

This is good news, the researchers say, because the earlier young people start any sexual activity at all, the more likely they are to get a sexually transmitted disease or to get pregnant.

The bad news is that teenagers and young adults are still highly likely to get sexually transmitted infections or STIs. “Despite the decline in the percentage of teenagers who ever had vaginal intercourse and increases in condom use, the rate of STIs has not decreased, particularly among teenagers 15–19 and young adults aged 20–24 years,” says the report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

“In 2010, about one-half of all new STIs occurred among people aged 15–24.”

The report shows that only 7 percent of girls aged 15 to 19 had had oral sex without ever having had vaginal intercourse. By age 22 to 24, just 2.7 percent of young women said they had given or received oral sex but not had vaginal intercourse.

“This new CDC analysis debunks many myths about when young people are initiating oral sex, and underscores the need for the kind of sex education that Planned Parenthood provides, which emphasizes not only pregnancy prevention, but sexually transmitted disease prevention as well,” said Leslie Kantor, vice president for education for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

“Although there has never been data to support it, there has been the perception that many teens engage in oral sex as a ‘risk-free’ alternative to intercourse. But the CDC analysis shows that sexually active young people are likely to engage in both activities.”

Planned Parenthood advocates for comprehensive sex education, and the Obama administration does too. The CDC researchers who did the study declined to comment on what it might mean, policy-wise, and said they were simply gathering statistics.

But the researchers also noted that teenagers often don’t understand the risks associated with sexual activity. “Research suggests that adolescents perceive fewer health-related risks for oral sex compared with vaginal intercourse. However, young people, particularly those who have oral sex before their first vaginal intercourse, may still be placing themselves at risk of STIs or HIV before they are ever at risk of pregnancy,” they wrote.

 “The risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is lower for oral sex than for vaginal intercourse or anal sex,” the report adds. “However, several studies have documented that oral sex can transmit certain STIs, including chlamydia, genital herpes, gonorrhea and syphilis. Teenagers and young adults engaging in sexual activity are at increased risk of STIs or HIV.”

Kantor said this calls for more sex education. “We need to make sure that young people have the skills to negotiate what they do and don’t want to do in sexual relationships, as well as education about and access to condoms and birth control so that they can protect themselves from STDs and pregnancy and remain healthy,” she said.

The study, based on hour-long, in-person interviews done from 2007 to 2010, also demonstrates racial disparities. Black girls and women aged 15 to 24 were far more likely than similar white girls to have had intercourse. The survey found that 74 percent of African-American females had vaginal intercourse at least once, compared to 68 percent of Hispanic females and 66 percent of whites.

And the study, meant to shed light on sexual practices, suggests that different types of sexual contact go together. “Among females aged 15–24 years, 26 percent had first oral sex before first vaginal intercourse; 27 percent had oral sex after first intercourse; 7.4 percent had oral sex on the same occasion as first intercourse; and 5.1 percent had oral sex, but no vaginal intercourse,” says the report.

But fewer girls were having oral sex than before. “About the same percentage of girls aged 15–19 years reported giving or receiving oral sex (41 percent and 43 percent, respectively),” the report says. This compares to 45 percent in 2006-2008.

“A higher percentage of  boys aged 15–19 years had oral sex (49 percent) than had vaginal intercourse (44 percent),” it adds. This was about the same as 2006-2008.

Related links:

Sex a taboo subject for Latinas

Giving credit to sex education

More teens are using condoms

By Rachael Rettner
MyHealthNewsDaily

About 7 percent of adults and teens in the United States are orally infected with the human papillomavirus, or HPV, a new study says. This represents about 14.9 million people.

More men are affected than women: About 10 percent of men ages 14 to 69 have an oral HPV infection, compared with 3.6 percent of women, the study showed.

Oral HPV infections cause some oropharyngeal cancers, or cancers of the tongue, the tonsils or back of the mouth. People who are infected with the strain HPV 16 are 14 times more likely to develop these cancers compared with those not infected with the virus.

The new findings were "reassuring," according to study researcher Dr. Maura Gillison, chair of cancer research at The Ohio State University , because they show that while oral infection with the virus is common, cancer cases as a result of these infections are rare. In other words, most infected people don't get cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be about 40,000 new cases of cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx in 2012.

The findings also show oral HPV infections are, for the most part, sexually transmitted. People who reported engaging in oral sex were twice as likely to have an oral HPV infection as those who did not engage in oral sex. People who had had sex of any kind, including vaginal sex or oral sex, were eight times more likely to have an oral HPV infection than those who had not had sex. Among those who'd had 20 or more sexual partners, one in five had an oral HPV infection.

"Taken together, these data indicate that transmission by casual, nonsexual contact is likely to be unusual," the researchers wrote in their study.

However, there are clues HPV may also spread by kissing. Oral HPV infections were more common among sexually experienced people who had not engaged in oral sex than among sexually inexperienced individuals, a finding that is "consistent with transmission by other sexually associated contact (eg, deep kissing)," the researchers wrote in their study.

"This study of oral HPV infection is the critical first step toward developing potential oropharyngeal cancer prevention strategies," Gillison said. "This is clearly important, because HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer is poised to overtake cervical cancer as the leading type of HPV-caused cancers in the U.S."

More studies are needed to know whether the HPV vaccine effectively prevents oral HPV infections, the researchers said. Currently, the vaccine is recommended to prevent cervical cancer, anal cancer and genital warts.

How common is oral HPV?

Between 1998 and 2004, incidence of new cases of oropharyngeal cancer in the United States more than tripled (from 0.8 cancers per 100,000 people to 2.6 cancers per 100,000 people).

Despite the rise, little was known about the prevalence of oral HPV infection, and the characteristics of those who have it.

In the new study, Gillison and colleagues analyzed data from more than 5,500 men and women in the United States. Participants answered questions about their sexual behavior and substance use. They were also asked to gargle mouthwash for 30 seconds, and cells that were exfoliated into the rinse were analyzed for evidence of HPV infection.

The researchers found HPV in the cells of 6.9 percent of the participants, and HPV 16 in 1 percent.

The infection was most common among those ages 60 to 64 years, (at 11.4 percent), and those ages 30 to 34 (at 7.3 percent).

Physicians should encourage their patients who engage in oral sex to use barrier protection, Dr. Hans P. Schlecht, of the Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, wrote in an editorial accompanying the study.

Smokers and alcohol users also had a high prevalence of HPV. About 20 percent of those who said they smoke 20 or more cigarettes per day had oral HPV infection.

More research

It's not clear why oral HPV infection was more common among men than women. It could be that HPV is more likely to be transmitted through oral sex on women versus men, the researchers said. Differences in hormone levels between the sexes could also affect the duration of an infection.

Smoking may suppress the immune system, leading to longer infections with the virus, the researchers said.

The researchers noted their findings are based on study participant's reports of their sexual behavior and smoking, which may not be completely accurate.

Researchers need to follow people over time to better understand the effects of age, gender, sexual behavior and smoking on the incidence and duration of oral HPV infections, the researchers said.

The study will be presented this week at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium in Phoenix. The study and editorial are published online today (Jan. 26) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Pass it on: Oral HPV infections affect about 7 percent of adults in teen in the United States, and are more common in men than women.

More from MyHealthNewsDaily:

5 Reasons Being a Woman Is Good for Your Health

5 Dangerous Vaccination Myths

Busted! Gender Myths in the Bedroom & Beyond