From:    Kirsten Emmott
Subject: teen sex; more stats


A while back someone questioned just how much premarital sex there
is among college age people. The MMWR public health newsletter for January
4, 1991 states that as of 1988, 51.5 per cent of women aged 15-19 years
reported having had premarital sexual intercourse.

"For each year of age during 1970-1988, the proportion of adolescent
women who reported having had premarital sexual intercourse increased at
least 55%.  The largest relative  increase occurred among those 15 years of
age (from 4.6% in 1970 to 25.6 % in 1988)." The overall figure for 1970 was
28.6% (26.7% for white women, 46% for black; now it's 50.6 % for white
women, 58.8% for black.)

There were in 1988 an estimated 3.7 mlillion sexually experienced
teen white females, and 0.8 million blacks.  (Later on the article expresses
concern over the meaning of these numbers for the current epidemic of
sexually transmitted disease, particularly gonorrhea, chlamydia and herpes.
"Each year, more than 1 million US women experience an episode of pelvic
inflammatory disease, with 16-20% of cases occurring among teenagers.PID
rates are highest among teenagers."  PID, of course, can lead to infertility
and ectopic pregnancy.  "In a prospective evaluation of the risk for
cervical cancer after cytologic evidence of human papilloma virus infection,
women less than 25 years of age had increased risk of progression."

"In 1988, adolescents who had had sexual intercourse earlier
in life reported greater numbers of sex partners.  Among 15-to 24- year-olds
who initiated sexual intercourse before age 18, 75% reported
having had two or more partners, and 45% reported having had four
or more partners; among those who became sexually active after age 19, 20%
reported having had more than one partner, and 1%, more than 4  partners.

Apparently the source of these numbers is a series of National
Surveys of Young Women, conducted since 1971. A reference is given.

I trust those of us with young daughters are giving them
contraceptive and disease-prevention advice, starting at
about age 11.  Sons too, it goes without saying.