Sex survey finds U.S. men aren't the lovers they think they are - and women 'faking it' is to blame

Corky Siemaszko New York Daily News 10/04/2010 16:54

Sex survey reveals quite a bit about our habits in bed.

American men aren't the studs they think they are, a new study found. In the nation's most comprehensive sex survey since 1994, 85% of men bragged to Indiana University researchers that their latest sexual partner had an orgasm.

Think again, lovers.

A paltry 64% of women reported having an orgasm the last time they had sex - a discrepancy too great to be accounted for by some of the men having had male partners at their most recent event.

The "perception gap" might be ego-deflating news for some guys, but the authors said there's much in the findings to reassure Americans about their sex lives.

"Our data provide answers to these common sex questions and demonstrate how sex has changed in the nearly 20 years since the last study of its kind," Dr. Debby Herbenick, associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion, said when the results were released yesterday.

While 40% of 17-year-old boys reported they had had intercourse in the past year, researchers found that teenagers in general aren't as sex-crazed as they are made out to be.

Dr. Dennis Fortenberry, a pediatrics professor who led the study's section about teen sex, said Americans should find the survey reassuring.

"Unless, like Al Qaeda, you feel there's something abnormal about the American people, what these data say is, 'This is normal,'" he said.