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BY ALYSSA WORK

In print | March 22, 2007

Quaker matchbox or hookup culture? Students might be surprised to hazard a look at the recently published results of the Sexual Health Counselors’ Sexual Health Survey conducted earlier this semester.

The survey, which collected responses from 871 self-selected students of all class years, was designed by the SHC to “gather data on how we were serving the student community to know how better to serve” according to Sexual Health Counselor Annie Fredrickson ’07. It asked students about the kinds of sexual activity they engage in, what kind of protection they use and how often and their STI testing habits.

College life appears to have deflowered quite a few: 38 percent had engaged in vagina/penis intercourse and 8.4 percent in anal intercourse with a penis before Swarthmore; 69.2 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively, had since.

Results showed that 40.7 percent of students had performed oral sex on a vagina, 42.7 percent on a penis, and 2.8 percent on an anus before Swarthmore.

68.1 percent had performed oral sex on a vagina, 67.8 percent on a penis and 10 percent on an anus since arriving at Swarthmore.

It was “a little surprising,” Frederickon said, that “even with a very broad definition of sex, 20% of the campus had not engaged in any of that sexual activity. I thought it would be lower.”

While the vast majority of students having vagina/penis intercourse (81.7 percent) used birth control all of the time, methods varied in reliability: apart from the 25 percent for whom the question was not applicable, 69 percent relied on condoms, 48 percent on the Pill.

At the same time, 15.2 percent used emergency contraception and 16.2 percent put their chips on coitus interruptus — the “pull-out” method. For STI protection, those having vagina/penis intercourse used a condom as the most common method (79 percent), although just over half used STI protection all of the time.

To ward off STIs, those having anal intercourse (which 77.2 percent of students responded that they were not) used primarily condoms (17.6 percent) followed by lube (15.1 percent) and “getting tested” (8.1 percent). 60.4 percent of those having anal intercourse used STI protection 100 percent of the time.

But are students getting tested and, if so, are they telling their sexual partners?

Only 38.3 percent of students know the sexual history of their partner every time they engage in sexual activity; and 75.9 percent of students have never gone to Worth Health Center for an STI test.

The survey showed that 46.8 percent of students have never been tested at all, and 15.4 percent get tested only “if I think I’ve been exposed.”

It’s lucky, then, that the number of students who reported having an STI was low: 2.9 percent reported herpes and 2.5 percent human papilloma virus (HPV).

All data was in raw form, but Fredrickson said that the next step is to interpret the raw data and solicited suggestions on how Worth and the SHC program can improve.

“In order to know what it means, we have to wade through everything,” she said.

A preliminary report from the SHC with further analysis, including data on the free-response questions, will be published in April For the full results of the survey, visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=259357983582.

Disclosure note: Annie Fredrickson is a columnist for The Phoenix and had no role in the production of this article.

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