this time ~ this space

Bush’s administration has tried to promote sexual abstinence, outside of marriage as a way to prevent diseases which are spread by intimate contact. However, survey results from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, including the first data collected by the CDC on the number of lifetime sex partners, suggest the abstinence message may be falling on deaf ears.

According to the government survey, almost one in three American men says he has had sex with at least 15 partners, while just one in 11 women reports similar behavior.

Kathryn Porter, a medical officer for the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, and one of the study’s co-authors said that the average number of female sexual partners for men was 6.8 and that women reported an average of 3.7 male sexual partners.

The results, released June 22, came from research that probed the sexual habits and drug use of 6,237 people age 20 to 59 who answered questions from 1999 to 2002. About 4 percent of adults overall, and 11 percent of unmarried ones, said in the survey that they never had sex.

The questionnaire, which defined sex as oral, anal or vaginal, was administered in a confidential environment designed to elicit honesty. Survey respondents entered a van, listened to the questions through head phones, and typed their answers into a computer without researchers’ being present.

The survey also questioned drug use. About one in five adults reported ever trying tried cocaine or another street drug, not including marijuana, and about 5 percent said they had used such drugs in the past year. Source