Survey: Oral Sex Often Comes First for Teens

Most teens who have oral sex for the first time go on to have vaginal sex within 6 months, a survey has found. Moreover, half of teens who had oral sex in 9th grade also had vaginal sex before they were seniors, the survey found. But among teens who didn’t have oral sex until the end of 11th grade, 84% finished that grade without having vaginal sex. The study began with surveys of 630 California teens at the start of 9th grade. Most of them also filled out surveys every 6 months until the end of 11th grade. About 1 out of 5 teens had had oral sex before 9th grade. Only 71 had had vaginal sex. For all ages, students were twice as likely to have oral sex rather than vaginal sex first. The study was published online in the journal Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. HealthDay News wrote about it November 1.