Though he never used the words “oral sex,” Patricia M. knew that’s exactly what her 15-year-old son meant. Prompted by a suggestive scene on television, her son turned to his parents with an earnest expression. “You can catch all kinds of diseases that way,” Patricia recalls him saying.

As she and her husband listened to the facts their child shared, gleaned from his hours of school-based sex education classes, they learned an important lesson. “The fact that he is open about it helps with my concerns,” says Patricia, who has another son, age 11. “We set no boundaries when it comes to talking about sex.”

Despite the open communications in her own home, she’s concerned about stories she hears on the news and from other parents that indicate a growing acceptance of oral sex among curious teens who want to avoid pregnancy. “It’s a topic I’m going to have to pay as much attention to as intercourse,” she says. “There’s a lot to worry about.”

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