One in Three U.S. Men Had at Least 15 Sexual Partners [View All]

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- Almost one in three American men says he has had sex with at least 15 partners, while just one in 11 women reports similar behavior, according to a government survey.

The results, released today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, came from research that probed the sexual habits and drug use of 6,237 people age 20 to 59 who answered questions from 1999 to 2002. About 4 percent of adults overall, and 11 percent of unmarried ones, said in the survey that they never had sex.

President George W. Bush's administration has tried to promote sexual abstinence among unmarried people as a way to prevent diseases such as HIV, which are spread by intimate contact. The survey results, including the first data collected by the CDC on the number of lifetime sex partners, suggest the abstinence message may not be enough.