Talking about sex can be very difficult, so many people—regardless of their gender, age, or sexual orientation—avoid the subject altogether. For example, a recent American Social Health Association survey of women attending college showed that although 81 percent, on entering into a sexual relationship, asked their partner how many partners he had had in the past, only slightly more than half asked if he had ever had a sexually transmitted infection or had ever had unprotected sex. Fewer than a third asked whether their partner had ever had a same-sex partner or had ever used intra- venous drugs. And these are the findings on how women behaved when they knew their partner. fairly well before entering into the sexual relationship. When women were entering into a new sexual relationship with a casual partner, even fewer of them asked these important questions. Finally, although about 85 percent of the women in this study were sexually active, fewer than half of them used any method to protect against sexually transmitted infections, and about a quarter had never had a pelvic examination.
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