Q:  My girlfriend and I have been together for a year and a half.  We have never had sexual intercourse but we do have oral sex very often.  The reason being is because we want to wait until we finish college and get married.  How will oral sex in our relationship right now affect our sex lives and/or our relationship later?
                                            
A:  According to Campus Health survey data, a significant number of students choosing not to have intercourse cited their reason as “wanting to wait until marriage.”  If your relationship is stable and satisfying, there should be no doubt that oral sex will positively affect your relationship.  As long as you openly communicate with your partner, and you both enjoy oral sex, your sex lives should be enhanced.  

Oral sex can be an alternative to intercourse, and is a great way to learn how to satisfy each other.  It can also increase intimacy between you and your partner. Once you get married and begin having intercourse, you will still enjoy having oral sex and will find it a nice complement to intercourse.  It can prolong foreplay, offer a sexual intimacy alternative during pregnancy, and add variety to your sex life.  At times, oral sex may even be more satisfying than intercourse.  For some men and women, oral sex can produce orgasms to an intensity which intercourse may not.  Many couples view oral sex as an integral part of marital/intimate sex.
 
It’s important to note that while oral sex eliminates the chance of pregnancy, it is not completely safe.  Herpes on the mouth (cold sores) can be transmitted to a partner’s genitals during oral sex (or vice versa). Recent research has demonstrated that it is also possible to transmit the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) from penis to mouth, or vagina to mouth.