Some highlights from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior

Researchers at Indiana University have just released the very large and very comprehensive National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB). With responses from 5,865 people ages 14 to 94, the survey asked about frequency of sex, types of partners, paying for sex and even how much pleasure or pain they got from sexual activity.

The always-interesting Cory Silverberg at About:Sexuality spent the weekend with the report (bless his heart) is doing several posts on this gigantic study, the first of which includes some of the highlights (and the entire thread is here.) His posts explore both the good and questionable data, and he makes the point that some of this information has been known to health educators for a while now, but not to the general public.

Unfortunately, he hasn't done anything on age of first sexual experience or the number of non-sexually-active respondents, but that may come in later posts or papers. You can click here for a chart on different sexual activities by age. If you want to do your own research, you can download the first nine papers here.

Here are some of Cory's highlights:

Not all teenagers are the same. By collecting data from adolescents age 14 and up, the survey foregrounds the transition moment between the ages of 16-17 and 18-19, where teenagers show a huge leap in both kind and frequency of sexual activities. To offer one example, twice as many women between 18-19 report having had oral sex, vaginal intercourse, and anal sex as women who are 16-17. The data also let us see that condom rates also drop during this transition, in some groups by as much as 50% between the ages of 14-17 and 18-24.

53% of participants were with a romantic partner, 24% had a casual sex partner, and 9% had sex with a "new acquaintance"

Across age groups 6% of men and 30% of women reported some pain at their last sexual encounter. These percentages are striking both in terms of the sheer number of people they represent who are experiencing pain during sex, and the significant (but not surprising) gender discrepancy.

Overall 91% of men and 64% of women report having an orgasm at last sexual encounter. At the same time, 85% of men and 92% of women believed their partner had an orgasm the last time they had sex. These data can't be directly compared given the small group of people who have same sex partners, but the discrepancy, particular among men, is notable. Clearly more men think their partners are having orgasms than they are.

Read more at About:Sexuality.

UPDATE 2: Hungarian virginity auctioneer takes it to TV

Update Aug. 26: After turning down a bidder from the UK because he wanted to marry her, Miss Spring (as she calls herself) and re-launched her auction on Hungarian TV station Tabu.

While local prosecutors are trying to decide whether the station will face criminal charges for prostitution, Tabu reps are denying they are acting as Miss Spring's pimps–or at least rationalizing the fact that they kind of actually are:

"I do not feel like her pimp," said presenter Mate Kocka, who is arranging the auction. "Yes, I know, soliciting yourself is a crime in Hungary. But it's classified as a mild breach of the law, and its punishment is only 100 000 HUF (290 GBP). Miss Spring knows that too and I suppose she'll pay for it from the sale price," he added.

No word on what Tabu is getting out of this deal, or why one of the many people cashing in on this spectacle (including UK bookies) doesn't just come forward and give Miss Spring the money she needs.

Update Aug. 13: The young woman auctioning her virginity has apparently rejected the winning bidder because he wants to marry her, saying: "I broke off with the British guy because he wanted to go too far. I'm not looking for a husband - I'm doing this for my family."

Also she's 17, not 18 and has responded to her numerous critics with: "Since the media frenzy started, a lot of people have called me a martyr or a slut. I am neither. I am just a girl who wants to have a better future, who wants to take care of her family."

I'm starting to really like her.

Here's the original post:

Another virginity auction deal has reportedly been made, this one by an 18-year-old Hungarian woman seeking to pay off family debts. The final price was £200,000, made by a bidder in the UK.

Reports Metro UK, the bidding started on eBay but was shut down by the company. Still,

the girl was so desperate to be allowed to sell her virginity that after the bid was closed down on eBay she wrote to papers like the Huffington Post, The Telegraph and The Sun and to celebrities like Lady Gaga and Madonna, attracting enough attention that some of the original bidders were allowed to continue offering bids via email.

So, assuming this deal goes through and some idiot thinks it's worth $318,000 to be the first to put his penis inside her, she'll be able to take care of her family and possibly medical school. Happily, no word on requiring hymenal authentication, which is (say it with me) meaningless anyway. Also no word on testing the dude for every known STI. I sincerely hope this works out for her. Nevertheless, the total creepiness of these dudes overwhelms me:

"Both men wanted to marry me take care of me and my family. But for me this was supposed to be a one off thing. Getting married and living with someone is a challenge I am not sure I am yet ready for. However I would really like the opportunity to go to Britain or Ireland. So who knows."

Who are these guys? Ecchhh. More posts about virginity auctions in our collection, and they're all pretty depressing.