Objective: To examine college-aged students' sexual risk taking behavior and their knowledge level. Design: descriptive design participants. Setting: A convenience sample of college-aged students between the ages of 17 -25. Results: Seven hundred and seventy students responded to the survey. Findings revealed that 33% had sexual intercourse with two to five individuals, and 15.5% between eleven and twenty sexual partners. 50.9% had unprotected vaginal intercourse not using condoms and of those 45.8% either do not insist on condom use or only use them occasionally. 22.1% do not insist on using condoms for sexual intercourse and 24.7% responded that they sometimes insist on condom use. 47.2% are not worried about getting AIDS. 41.3% are not concerned with genital lesions. 42.4% would rate themselves as not being very knowledgeable about sexually transmitted infections. 12.4% of the females had unintended pregnancies and overall 74.9% would not feel comfortable discussing their sexual activity with their mothers. 58.1% use alcohol prior to or during sexual intercourse.

This study investigated whether women's perimenopausal/menopausal symptoms had negative effects on marital or long-term relationships, an aspect underrepresented in the literature. A questionnaire distributed to 110 convenience-sampled women, ages 45-60 years and prescreened for inclusion by private practitioners or the author's colleagues, yielded a 60% return. Symptoms correlated positively with participants' feelings about the relationship and sexual intimacy with their partner (.353-.783, p ¼ 0.01, and 272-.371, p ¼ 0.05, respectively). Divorced women did not experience the same loss of sexual desire or feel anger or resentment toward their partners as did married women. Clinicians should ask women about perimenopausal/menopausal symptoms, loss of libido, and the marital relationship during annual visits. Education related to this period of life may provide a better understanding to women and the partner may be included in education, as many men do not understand the changes associated with perimenopause and menopause.

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