The good news is that Americans are getting laid and enjoying it. The bad news is that they’re not necessarily making sure that their sex is safe.During September of this year, MSNBC.com and Zogby International polled more than 56,000 adult American men and women between the ages of 18 to 70 about their sex lives. Available to the public on Monday, the results show that while many participants view themselves as being informed about STD risks, nearly half of those who responded either don’t know the STD status of their partners or never bother to discuss the matter, regardless of their own status.
Although 39-percent of respondents claim they always discuss HIV risks with new partners, almost a third said the conversation never comes up. The lower the education level, the less likely such a topic is discussed, in fact. Given the country’s increased educational focus on abstinence, this could be part of a disturbing trend, especially among younger and less schooled individuals. Interestingly enough, this same demographic group was nine times more likely to report having purchased sex from a professional than were more educated poll respondents.
Fear of rejection may be one motivation for lack of disclosure and discussion, according to Charles Ebel, vice president of health program resources for the American Social Health Association. Ebel’s experiences lead him to believe that the stigma associated with STDs makes open discussion of the topic difficult. “Being able to talk about it is a huge problem,” he points out. “At the heart of it is the fear of rejection; it’s the fear of being labeled undesirable.”
Perhaps reflecting the fact that women may be are more aware of the effects of STDs, as well as their greater chance at experiencing difficulty from and difficulty with them, with more of those polled reporting a consistent policy of risk discussion. Nearly half of all women indicated that they always discuss STD status, compared to 33-percent of men interviewed. Likewise, African-American indicated that they were slightly more likely than whites or Hispanics to bring up the subject (44-percent, 38-percent, and 40-percent respectively). Younger respondents were especially concerned about contracting herpes via oral sex, yet nearly 42-percent of all ages so concerned admitted that they were unaware or uncertain of the HIV status of their current partner.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of poll participants are in long-term, monogamous relationships – but encouragingly for those frightened by the prospect of only one partner was the discovery that more than 60-perecent reported having had sex within the day or week prior to taking the survey. In fact, nearly a quarter of those said that they have sex more than three times per week.
Julius Schachter, a professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, as well as the editor of Sexually Transmitted Diseases journal, reports that many people do not perceive their partners at being at risk for an STD, especially if they are not gay and do not use IV drugs. Additionally, heterosexual men tend to see themselves as protected from STDs. Ironically, according to the study’s findings, the time when most individuals put themselves at risk is while intoxicated or high. Nearly two-thirds of those questioned said they had unprotected sex while under the influence of alcohol, although 50-percent of Asians denied ever having indulged in such behavior.
The majority of those involved in the survey have had more than one partner, although not many more. On the conservative end of the spectrum, 34-percent of men claimed one to five partners, as did 38-percent of women. This compares with the National Center for Health Statistics, which said men 30 – 44 years of age have had six to eight partners, whereas women have had four. Women who tool the poll, were slightly more likely than men to have had between six and ten partners, and a daring 25-percent of men and 13-percent of women admitted having had more than 25 partners during their life so far.
Although the information is certainly thought provoking and cautionary, the survey, which included input from sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, is not intended to be an exhaustive scientific study drawing broad conclusions. Instead, it is meant to be a peek into how people are protecting themselves against STDs.
