Navigation |
sexual activity· Most very young teens have not had intercourse: 8 in 10 girls and 7 in 10 boys are sexually inexperienced at age 15. 1 · The likelihood of teenagers' having intercourse increases steadily with age; however, about 1 in 5 young people do not have intercourse while teenagers.2 · Most young people begin having sex in their mid-to-late teens, about 8 years before they marry; more than half of 17-year-olds have had intercourse.3 · While 93% of teenage women report that their first intercourse was voluntary, one-quarter of these young women report that it was unwanted.4 · The younger women are, when they first have intercourse, the more likely they are to have had unwanted or nonvoluntary first sex--7 in 10 of those who had sex before age 13, for example.5 · Nearly two-thirds (64%) of sexually active 15-17-year-old women have partners who are within two years of their age; 29% have sexual partners who are 3-5 years older, and 7% have partners who are six or more years older.6 · Most sexually active young men have female partners close to their age: 76% of the partners of 19-year-old men are either 17 (33%) or 18 (43%); 13% are 16, and 11% are aged 13-15.7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sex is rare among very young teenagers, but common in the later teenage years.40 Sources: 1995 National Survey of Family Growth and 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Males. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contraceptive Use · A sexually active teenager who does not use contraceptives has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within one year. 8 · Teenage women's contraceptive use at first intercourse rose from 48% to 65% during the 1980s, almost entirely because of a doubling in condom use. By 1995, use at first intercourse reached 78%, with 2/3 of it condom use.9 · 9 in 10 sexually active women and their partners use a contraceptive method, although not always consistently or correctly.10 · About 1 in 6 teenage women practicing contraception combine two methods, primarily the condom and another method.11 · The method teenage women most frequently use is the pill (44%), followed by the condom (38%). About 10% rely on the injectable, 4% on withdrawal and 3% on the implant.12 · Teenagers are less likely than older women to practice contraception without interruption over the course of a year, and more likely to practice contraception sporadically or not at all.13 Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) · Every year 3 million teens--about 1 in 4 sexually experienced teens--acquire an STD.14 · In a single act of unprotected sex with an infected partner, a teenage woman has a 1% risk of acquiring HIV, a 30% risk of getting genital herpes and a 50% chance of contracting gonorrhea.15 · Chlamydia is more common among teens than among older men and women; in some settings, 10-29% of sexually active teenage women and 10% of teenage men tested for STDs have been found to have chlamydia.16 · Teens have higher rates of gonorrhea than do sexually active men and women aged 20-44.17 · In some studies, up to 15% of sexually active teenage women have been found to be infected with the human papillomavirus, many with a strain of the virus linked to cervical cancer.18 · Teenage women have a higher hospitalization rate than older women for acute pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which is most often caused by untreated gonorrhea or chlamydia. PID can lead to infertility and ectopic pregnancy.19
|