OBJECTIVE

This report presents data on the prevalence of oral sex with opposite-sex partners and the timing of first oral sex relative to first vaginal intercourse among females and males aged 15-24 based on the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) data from 2007-2010. The question on timing, added to the NSFG in 2007, asked females and males whether first oral sex occurred before, after, or on the same occasion as their first vaginal intercourse.

METHODS

Descriptive tables of numbers and percentages are presented and discussed. The current report is based on a nationally representative subsample of 6,346 interviews conducted from July 2007 to June 2010-3,242 with women and 3,104 with men aged 15-24 years. The measures presented in this report were collected using audio computer-assisted self-interviewing, in which the respondent enters his or her own answers into the computer without telling them to an interviewer. The overall response rate for the 2006-2010 NSFG was 77%, 78% for women aged 15-44 years, and 75% for men aged 15-44 years.

RESULTS

About two-thirds of females (66%) and males (65%) aged 15-24 years in 2007-2010 had ever had oral sex. Among females aged 15-24 years. 26% had first oral sex before first vaginal intercourse; 27% had oral sex after intercourse; 7.4% had oral sex on the same occasion as first intercourse; and 5.1% had oral sex, but no vaginal intercourse. Among males aged 15-24 years, 24% had first oral sex before first intercourse; 24% had oral sex after first intercourse; 12% had oral sex on the same occasion as first intercourse; and 6.5% had oral sex, but no vaginal intercourse.