An interview with Dr. Mark Schuster, the author of Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They’d Ask)
By Valentina Cardenas, 17, Ramona Convent (Alhambra)
This interview contains frank information about teens and sex. After consulting with L.A. Youth’s teen staff and their friends at various schools, we prepared these questions to give teens the information they want to know, but might be afraid to ask. Our purpose is not to offend, but rather to help teens make informed decisions.
Dr. Mark Schuster, director of the UCLA/Rand Center for Adolescent Health Promotion, answered our questions about sex. His book for parents, “Everything You Never Wanted Your Kids To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid They’d Ask)” was published in 2003.
10. Can you get STDs if you don’t have sex?
“A lot of people mean vaginal intercourse when they have sex, and you can definitely also get STDs from anal or oral sex. You can get some STDs if you’re even just touching, but that’s not as likely. But, you can get STDs from all sorts of sexual activity and that’s the thing that not most everyone realizes.
Most think ‘Oh, oral sex is safe from everything, you can’t get pregnant, you can’t get a disease’ and that’s just not true. You can’t get pregnant but you can definitely get a disease.”
11. Can lesbians get STDs as well?
“Yes, for several reasons, studies show that a lot of lesbians at some point in their life have sex with a man, so that makes them, in terms of an STD risk, same as any woman who’s had sex with a man, whether she’s a lesbian or not. When they were younger, often lesbians have had sex with a man, and so they could have caught diseases then.
But you can also get the disease transmitted between two women, so absolutely. It is the case of lesbians that they have much lower STD rates than others do, but it’s not zero.”
12. What kind of behaviors put you at risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease (STD)?
“Well, any sexual behavior that involves another person, like if you masturbate alone you won’t get an STD. But any intimate sexual activity has some chance of getting an STD if the other person is infected.
But I’d say, vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, oral sex, can all transmit STDs. Mutual masturbation doesn’t easily transmit STDs but it can transmit HPV (Human papillomavirus). So, any activity can transmit something, but anal intercourse appears to be the easiest.
Vaginal and especially anal intercourse would be easiest to transmit disease. But oral sex can definitely also transmit disease although not everybody realizes it. Even mutual masturbation, or lying on each other naked can also transmit HPV, but you’re not going to get HIV from just lying on each other naked or from mutual masturbation, but everything has at least some that it could transmit.
Using a condom, properly and every time, will reduce your chances of getting most STDs, but it’s not 100 percent.”