6 Little-Known Truths About American Sex Lives

 

1.How Americans Have Sex


As Healthland reported on Monday, a new study showed that baby boomers in America may be having a lot of sex, but they're doing it a lot less responsibly than teenagers. The study went on to reveal a lot more about American sexuality than that.

For the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB) — which examined everything from condom use to homosexual behavior to orgasm rates — researchers from Indiana University surveyed a random, cross-sectional and population-based sample of 14-to-94-year-olds across the United States. It was the most comprehensive survey of its kind in nearly two decades and the first to include teenagers.

"People are often curious about others' sex lives," said Debby Herbenick, associate director of Indiana University's Center for Sexual Health Promotion and a study author, in a statement. "Our data provide answers to these common sex questions and demonstrate how sex has changed in the nearly 20 years since the last study of its kind."

You can read the full findings in a series of studies published in a special issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine.


2.Teens Have Safer Sex Than We Think


Single people used condoms in one-third of all encounters of vaginal sex. Condom use was, surprisingly, highest among teens: 14-to-17-year-old boys used condoms during 80% of the last 10 times they had sex, and girls the same age reported using condoms during 58% of their last 10 times.

Racial differences were also noteworthy: 33% of black men and 37% of Hispanic men reported using condoms the last time they had sex, compared with 22% of white men. Black women also reported relatively higher rates of condom use: 36% of black women used a condom the last time they had sex, compared with 20% of white women.

And in direct contrast to a commonly reported complaint regarding condoms, the study found:

    Adults using a condom for intercourse were just as likely to rate the sexual event positively in terms of arousal, pleasure and orgasm than when having intercourse without one.

It's no surprise that condom use was studied extensively — the studies were financed by Trojan condom manufacturer, Church & Dwight Co., Inc.


3.Lots of People Try Batting for the Other Team


While about 8% of men and 7% of women identified themselves as gay, many more than that reported engaging in some type of same-sex sex within their lifetimes. This was particularly true for men who received oral sex from another man: only about 5% to 8% of men ages 18 to 59 reported receiving oral sex in the past year, but 14% of men ages 40 to 49 and 15% of men ages 50 to 59 reported ever having received oral sex from another man in their lifetimes. About 11% of men ages 20 to 24 say they've ever received anal sex in their lives; for men in their 40s and 50s, that figure levels off at about 9%.

Similar findings apply to women: among adult women ages 18 to 29, the rate of ever giving oral sex to another woman ranges from about 8% to 14%; the rate of receiving oral sex ranges from about 8% to 17%. But when asked about same-sex sex in the past year, rates drop to somewhere in the range of 2% to 9%.


4.Men Like Stability and Women Relish Variety


The new data challenge the conventional wisdom that men seek novelty and women prefer stability. While men reported being more likely to reach orgasm and less likely to experience some type of sexual dysfunction when having sex with a relationship partner, orgasm for women was more tied to the variety of sexual positions and behaviors during the course of the encounter:

    When controlling for age and health status, women ages 18 to 59 whose last event was with a relationship partner indicated greater difficulties with arousal and lubrication yet a greater likelihood of their partner experiencing orgasm as compared with women whose last reported sexual event was with a non-relationship partner.


5.Who Says Teenagers Are Over-Sexed?


By including teenagers, the study acknowledged that adolescents are sexual and that their sexuality is as worthy of study as anyone else's. As former Surgeon General M. Jocelyn Elders said in an accompanying editorial: "Every parent, teacher, clergy member and adult in our society must step up to the task of raising our children in a sexually healthy manner. Hiding from sexuality is not realistic when we know that humans are inherently sexual beings."

The study revealed that teenagers are indeed inherently sexual, but that many of them are waiting to have sex and are not quite as hypersexualized as the popular media portrays them.

Among 14-to-15-year-old boys, about 68% said they had masturbated during their lifetimes; by ages 16 to 17, the number jumps to 79%. In girls ages 14 to 15, 43% had ever masturbated, compared with 54% in 16-to-17-year-olds. Sex is clearly on the minds of America's youth.

But when asked about sex with a heterosexual partner, by age 17, about 30% of boys and 32% of girls reported having done it.


6.Seeking a Pu Pu Platter of Sex


While orgasm rates for men were high during vaginal sex, that was, sadly, not the case for women. Women were more likely to climax during all manner of other sexual acts — including oral, anal and mutual masturbation. Indeed, both men and women reported mixing it up and enjoying it. According to the study:

    Adults ages 18 to 59 engage in a diverse range of behaviors during a sexual event and that greater behavior diversity is related to ease of orgasm for both men and women.
    ...
    In addition, women who engage in a greater number of sexual behaviors may be more likely to experience multiple orgasms and may thus continue sex, or expand on their behaviors, to experience continued pleasure or subsequent orgasms.

William Saletan over at Slate had an interesting take on this data, especially on how experimenting with anal sex relates to female satisfaction and sexual liberalism.


http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/07/5-little-known-truths-about-american-sex-lives/