GENERAL GYNECOLOGY Sexual experience and risky sexual behaviours of Turkish university students Zehra Golbasi • Meral Kelleci Received: 25 August 2009 / Accepted: 7 January 2010 / Published online: 5 February 2010 Ó Springer-Verlag 2010 Abstract Objectives To determine the sexual experience and risky sexual behaviours of Turkish university students. Materials and methods This cross-sectional questionnaire survey was carried out in a state university in central Turkey. The data were collected in the 2006–2007 aca- demic year in this university. Participants were 949 con- venience students from this university. The study group was determined by a stratified sampling method, with faculty and sex representing the strata. Data were collected with the questionnaire designed by researchers to deter- mine the personal features, sexual experience and risky sexual behaviours of students. A chi-square test was applied in the statistical analysis of data. Results Of all the students in the research; 42.9% were female and 57.1% male. The percentage of students having had sexual experience was 33.8%. Of the students having had sexual experience, 17.1% were sexually active. The average age for first sexual experience was 17.47 ± 1.79. Among sexually active students, 51.9% indicated that they had unprotected sexual intercourse, 64.2% had sexual intercourse when they were intoxicated and 59.3% had more than one sexual partner. Conclusions According to the results obtained from this research, it can be said that a considerable number of the university students had sexual experience and those who are sexually active are under the risk of important health problems, such as sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy. Keywords Turkish university students Á Sexual experience Á Risky sexual behaviours Introduction Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unintended pregnancy have been increasing and have become one of the most important health issues for adolescent and young adults worldwide. Therefore, interest in the sexual behaviour of young people has been increasing since the 1950s. Previous studies revealed that early sexual debut is asso- ciated with risk behaviour, such as smoking, alcohol abuse, multiple partners and unprotected sexual intercourse, which, in turn, constitute the most significant factors contributing to STDs and unintended pregnancy [1–5]. Turkey is a country of 70.7 million people with a large population identifying themselves as being Muslim. As for the distribution of age, the majority of the population is very young. According to 2003 data, 20% of the total population is aged between 15 and 24 [6]. Turkey is a developing country with somewhat conservative but rap- idly changing social, cultural and moral norms. These changes seem to exert a considerable effect on the already complex nature of the young adult population. In terms of sexual behaviours, Turkey manifests a very complex picture, because the Turkish cultural mosaic is made up of many different value systems. In addition, there are some significant differences in attitudes towards sexu- ality of people from rural and urban areas. In most parts of Turkey, sexuality has not yet been accepted as a natural, healthy and integral part of human life. Premarital sex is still a taboo for many people because of traditional value systems. However, it is interesting to note that recent studies about young people’s sexual behaviour suggest that Z. Golbasi (&) Á M. Kelleci Nursing Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Cumhuriyet University, 58140 Sivas, Turkey e-mail: zehragolbasi@gmail.com 123 Arch Gynecol Obstet (2011) 283:531–537 DOI 10.1007/s00404-010-1363-y