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Oral sex is the "new black" in Australian bedrooms, say sexual health experts who believe improved hygiene standards and feminism are turning more couples on to the practice.
The Australasian sexual health congress in Perth has been told oral sex - once the domain of sex workers - has now become a leading part in the sexual repertoire for straight and gay Australians.
"For young people it's an almost universal practice now, with 90 per cent trying it before the age of 30," said Basil Donovan, a professor of sexual health at the University of New South Wales.
"Among teenagers it's the new abstinence in the Clintonesque sense, because it's a way of having sex without having sex, and there are obvious contraceptive advantages, too."
It also has been embraced as a way to better avoid the risks of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Professor Donovan said the practice had become far more popular among heterosexual couples in long-term relationships because they were having more sex now than in previous generations and were looking for more variety "to keep things interesting".
But the specialist theorises that improvements in cleanliness are the biggest driving factor in the popularity of oral sex.
Another sexual health expert, Dr Juliet Richters, author of the book Doing it Down Under, said she believed the rise of feminism was the key to the trend, with women now happier to say what they want.
The dramatic shift has occurred in one generation, with people aged over 50 having had oral sex for the first time an average of eight years after first having standard sex.
"Now it's a one-year gap and in many groups the oral intercourse comes first, some times by a few years," Professor Donovan said.
"That's a major shift from 80 years ago when it was entirely the work of sex workers and men were never going to get it at home."
He said there were many advantages to the trend and only a couple of disadvantages - increased risk of gonorrhoea among gay men and the increase in genital herpes caused by type one herpes, which normally causes coldsores.
- AAP
