Sexual behaviour in university students: report of a postal survey

A self-administered postal questionnaire was used in a cross-sectional survey of reported sexual behaviour of a random sample of first year university undergraduates. Only 43% answered the questions (149 males and 115 females) despite the cooperation of the Students' Union and assurances of anonymity and confidentiality. The proportions of male and female respondents who reported that they had had sex with another person during the preceding three months were 43.6 and 40.7%, respectively. Twenty-three of the 79 relationships reported by 63 males and 15 of the 61 reported by 45 females were reported as being 'casual'. The sixty-three males had had casual sex without a condom 72 times in total, and the 45 females 37 times. Twenty-two of the 63 males reported that someone else had swallowed their semen and 11 of the 45 females reported that they had swallowed semen.