KEY POINTS:
A new sexuality survey has confirmed what's long been suspected in the nation's nightclubs and bars: young Kiwi women are getting it on more than their male peers.
Results also suggest both sexes are becoming sexually active earlier than their parents did.
The Youth and Condoms survey by Durex and Family Planning, which quizzed 554 16 to 25-year-olds on their sex lives, overturned stereotypes of sexually reticent females and marauding males.
It found women tend to start having sex earlier than men. Twenty per cent of women surveyed said they first had sex at age 15 or younger, compared with 13 per cent of men.
Almost twice as many women than men laid claim to 10 or more sexual partners - 13 and seven per cent respectively. (The most common total for both women and men was three to six lovers.)
Yet women are less likely to use condoms. Nearly half, or 47 per cent, of women surveyed said they didn't always use condoms, compared with 34 per cent of men.
For both genders, 16 to 19 was the most common age-range for losing their virginity. However, nearly one in five people, or 17 per cent, started at 15 or younger.
Family Planning head Jackie Edmond was surprised by the gender differences. She said there was anecdotal evidence that today's young women were more assertive about their sexuality. At the same time, "it's often very difficult for young women to negotiate condom use".
Also, many young women rely on the pill for contraception. A third of survey respondents were in serious, long-term monogamous relationships, where condom use is generally lower.
Edmond said delaying sexual activity and sexual health education were key to helping young people stay safe. "We need to continue giving them strategies to decide when and if to be sexually active, to negotiate condom use with their partners."
Psychologist Robyn Salisbury, director of Sex Therapy New Zealand, was horrified by the figures on contraceptive use.
Her sense is young people, especially girls, face a lot of pressure to attract a partner. "Sex seems to have become a currency for beginning a relationship or making connections with others, which is a very expensive trade."
Middlemore Hospital youth health expert Dr Peter Watson said sex at 13 or younger often reflected troubled backgrounds and was a cause for concern. But, he argued, for older ages sexual experimentation was a normal and healthy part of growing up. "Yes it has risks but, in fact, most young people who are sexually active are happy and well adjusted."
In 2000, Watson led a landmark youth health study that surveyed almost 10,000 secondary students nationally. It found at age 13, 19 per cent of boys and 14 per cent of girls had had sex. At 14, the proportions rose to 29 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.
Watson said the fact that one in four 14-year-olds had had sex was "too many to just be the high risk, troubled few".
Last year, another study found sexually active Maori teens who spent more time with their parents were more likely to consistently use contraception.
Explained lead author nurse Terryann Clark, "There is a myth that young people don't need as much time with their families, but really they need their families just as much during this developmental period as through childhood."
