• 3/29/2005
  • Caroline Stanley
  • Better Homes & Gardens (www.bhg.com)

Dangerous Trend

Oral sex has become a widespread practice among adolescents. A staggering 40 percent of 10th-graders engaged in oral sex in the past year, with a quarter reporting three or more partners, according to a survey in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Kids like that oral sex preserves their status as virgins, won’t result in pregnancy, and carries little risk of HIV or other STDs.

The latter, however, now appears to be wishful thinking. In a 2003 University of Wisconsin study, 78 percent of new cases of genital herpes were caused by a virus found chiefly in the mouths of 16- to 21-year-olds. An even more sobering study from Johns Hopkins linked certain strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) to head and neck cancers. “Having performed oral sex on more than one partner in the previous year increased the risk of contracting this untreatable STD,” says lead researcher Maura Gillison, MD. Clearly, parents need to have serious sex talks with their teens.