No consensus in definition of "had sex".

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Survey - Brief article

When people say they "had sex," what transpired is anyone's guess. No uniform consensus existed when a representative sample of 18- to 96-year-olds was asked what the term meant to them, relates a study from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Is oral sex considered sex?--not to around 30% of the study participants. What about anal sex? For around 20%, no. In fact, a surprising number of older men did not even consider penile-vaginal intercourse to be sex. More than idle gossip, the answers to questions about sex can inform--or misinform--research, medical advice, and health education efforts.

"Researchers, doctors, parents, and sex educators should all be very careful and not assume that their own definition of sex is shared by the person they're talking to, be it a...