Okay, here are the numbers. A new sex trend report has been released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) this month and extended periods of virginity and same sex experimentation in females are both on the rise.

Researchers found that between 2006 and 2008, abstinence was 27% in young men between the ages of 15 and 24 years, up 22% since 2002. Virgin females in the same age bracket of those surveyed was at 29%, up 7% from 2002. This counts for more than just not having vaginal intercourse; it also includes oral and anal sex.

The survey also found that women aged 15 to 44 were more than 50% as likely to have had a same sex experience as men of the same age. During the same two year period, approximately 12.5% of women reported a same-sex experience compared with 5.2% of their male counterparts.

Anjani Chandra, a health scientist at the NCHS comments:

“I think a lot of people misconstrue this as meaning they’ve never had vaginal sex. But this is no sexual contact of any kind. They didn’t have oral sex or anal sex. They didn’t have anything. It’s what they’re telling us and we have to take it on faith.”

In an older age bracket, the study also asked men and women about their sexual behaviors, attractions and identities. Among adults aged 25 to 44, about 98%of females and 97% of males have had vaginal intercourse; 89% of females and 90% of men have had oral sex with a member of the opposite sex and 36% of females and 44% of males have had anal sex with a opposite sex partner.

It also seems sexual frequency leads to more experimentation. The study showed that women with four or more sexual partners in their lifetime were more likely to have had a female sexual partner, compared with women who had had no male partners or women who’ve had only one male partner.

Chandra continues:

“There was speculation that it was possibly just experimentation among college girls but we didn’t see anything to support that. We saw the opposite. When we look at college degreed women, they were less likely to report same-sex activity than other educational groups. Among men, there’s more same sex activity among higher educated men. And for women, the highest level of same-sex activity was reported by those with less education.”

Questions arise however concerning the variety of persons that answered the extensive questionnaires. Chandra also comments to this point:

“It’s important to realize there are not separate groups of sexual people. You can’t just think ‘Here are the heterosexual people; here are the homosexual people.’ People draw their partners from all different places. There are not necessarily clear boundaries between the population groups that engage in this behavior or that behavior.”

For the full, extensive 49 page report, click HERE.

Written by Sy Kraft, B.A.