Condom-Use at First Sex Does Not Boost Promiscuity

FRIDAY, May 4 (HealthDay News) -- Adolescents who use condoms at first sexual intercourse do not report more lifetime sexual partners than non-condom-users, but are more likely to keep using condoms and have fewer sexually transmitted diseases later on, according to a report in the June issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Taraneh Shafii, M.D., of the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues analyzed data on 4,018 sexually active adolescents from the 1994-2002 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The researchers collected urine samples to check for sexually transmitted diseases and obtained information about sexual behavior.

The investigators found that adolescents who reported condom use at first intercourse were more likely to have used condoms during their last intercourse, which was an average 6.8 years after their first sexual encounter. While total numbers of sexual partners reported were similar for both groups, condom-users had half the risk of gonorrhea or chlamydia as non-users.

"Adolescents who use condoms at their sexual debut do not report more sexual partners, are more likely to engage in subsequent protective behaviors, and experience fewer sexually transmitted infections than are adolescents who do not use condoms at their sexual debut," the authors write.

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