Premarital sex in China: new survey paints surprising picture

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As we have discussed before, lack of sexual education can be a dangerous. Like this couple who decided to wear plastic bags instead of using a condom. 

Having the topic of sex being so taboo not only leads to humorous follies like using plastic bags, but also more dire consequences like STDs and unplanned pregnancies. China’s Family Planning Association released the results from a survey that revealed as much on World Contraception Day: September 26th. After polling 18,000 college students, the report found that 10% of female college students admitted to having one pregnancy, 3.2% admitted to having multiple pregnancies. 

The average age of respondents was just over 20 and 60% of the respondents were women. 28% of male respondents said they had premarital sex, and 15% of females admitted to the same thing. 

Over 60% of respondents said they used condoms during their last sexual encounter. 16.3% said they had never used any kind of contraceptive. 

Even though only 63% of the 18,000 students used condoms, 90% said that they would not want to have a child before graduating college. 

Liu Liqing, director of Marie Stopes (one of the world’s largest reproductive health charities) said, “[Statistics] show that the number of young people who had premarital sex in China has increased in recent years, helping them to prevent unwanted pregnancy is very important." This fact has prompted China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission to issue leaflets recommending long-acting reversible contraception methods (i.e. intrauterine devices and subdermal implants) for the first time ever. Contraceptives is already an expensive endeavor for the commission. From 2006-2010 it spent 2.47 billion yuan on contraception distribution. 

Clearly, sexual education needs to be pushed much harder in China. Another recent survey of 12,000 students in Xi’an Jiaotong University showed that only 21.8% of students knew how to properly use a condom, 30% knew the difference between routine oral contraceptives and emergency contraception, and an amazing 20% considered abortion to be a form of contraception. Yet, 31% had premarital sex.

This may be part of the reason why abortion rates are abnormally high in the middle kingdom. A 2015 article from China Daily estimated that 13 million abortions are performed annually in China. It also showed that 20% of women have had more than one abortion. Though China’s population makes the comparison a little crude, the US has an estimated 1 million abortions per year. 

In that 2015 article, Qi Rongyi, chief physician of the gynecology and obstetrics department at a hospital in Tianjin had this to add to the statistics, “The number of abortions performed is believed to be higher. This is because the statistics were collected from registered medical institutions and do not include abortions carried out at unregistered clinics.” 

The number of girls under 16 undergoing abortions is growing by 30% a year at her hospital.

This points to not only a lack of sexual education- particularly about contraception- but also a lack of education about abortions. Pregnancy out of wedlock goes against societal norms and is highly disgraceful to families in China. Yet, many couples don’t take into account the extra dangers of abortions. 2 to 5% of women become sterile after an abortion- and that likelihood increases after subsequent abortions. In addition, abortions increase the risk of bacterial infections and ectopic pregnancies (where the fertilized egg attaches itself outside of the uterus). Ectopic pregnancies are a life threatening condition and requires emergency treatment. 

STD prevention is another important reason to use protection. China is on the cusp of having a serious HIV/AIDS problem. In 2015, 3,400 cases of HIV were reported by students- up from just 779 in 2008. As of December 2015, an estimated 575,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in China. 

It’s not just the health benefits of using contraceptives that need to be stressed. I believe Pan Suiming, a sexologist at Remin University of China said it best, "Instead of just promoting sex education in China, I would like to encourage more people to know more about safe sex as an important part of love.”

At least this guy has the right idea. He lured a woman whom he had a crush on to a spot in Harbin where he had carefully laid out 999 boxes of condoms. Witnesses reported that the romantic gentleman said, "On average, a man will have sex only 6,000 times in his life. I hope that every time I do, it will be with you."

The proposal for the lucky lady to be his girlfriend was completed with a bouquet of thongs apparently.

She obliged, though we suspect the Porsche that they left in didn't hurt things either.

Oh, and the condoms? He left them and allowed all the bystanders scramble to get as much contraception as possible. THAT'S how you promote safe sex.

Sources: ECNS, China Daily, & WebMD.com, Shanghaiist.com

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