What percentage of men have given oral sex in the past month
Executive summary
Recent survey literature does not converge on a single, definitive percentage for how many men have given oral sex in the past month; older nationally representative data from the early 1990s found that only about 10% of men had performed oral sex in the previous four weeks (90% had not) while more modern, larger probability samples report higher recent activity but do not publish a single clear past‑month overall figure in the available excerpts [1] [2]. Estimates therefore depend strongly on the study year, the age cohort sampled and whether the question asks about “giving” versus “receiving” oral sex; younger adults and partnered people report much higher recent activity than older adults [2] [3].
1. Older national data: a low past‑month rate that anchors one end of estimates
A nationally representative study of U.S. men aged 20–39 based on data from the 1991 national survey reported that 90% of men had not performed oral sex during the previous four weeks — implying roughly 10% had — and that although 75% had ever performed oral sex, more than half of those had not done so in the prior 18 months [1]. That study is often cited because it measured both lifetime and recent frequency, but it is two decades older than many contemporary sexual‑behavior shifts and therefore likely underestimates current past‑month activity among younger cohorts [1].
2. Modern probability samples: frequent measurement but fewer clear single‑number past‑month figures
A later nationally representative probability sample of 5,865 U.S. respondents (ages 14–94) explicitly reported recent (past month and past year) prevalence of giving and receiving oral sex, but the publicly available summaries emphasize patterns (age gradients, rising repertoire of sexual acts) rather than publishing one headline past‑month percentage for “men who gave oral sex” in the snippets provided here [2]. That study does, however, show that oral sex is common across reproductive ages, and that more than half of people ages 18–49 engaged in oral sex in the past year — a finding that suggests past‑month prevalence will be substantially higher in younger cohorts than the older 1991 estimate [2].
3. Age and relationship status drive large differences in past‑month rates
Multiple sources show age and partnership status matter: the National Survey of Family Growth (2011–2013) reports very high lifetime prevalence (about 87% of men ever had oral sex), and other analyses show younger adults and partnered people report oral sex far more often than older or single adults [4] [3]. A study of older community‑dwelling adults (ages 57–85) found 37% had participated in oral sex in the past 12 months, illustrating how recent (monthly) prevalence will be lower in older cohorts than among younger adults [3].
4. Gender reporting differences complicate counting “giving” specifically
Several studies find men are more likely to report receiving oral sex while women often report giving it more frequently in recent timeframes; college and youth samples show men report having received oral sex more often, and women in some samples report giving oral sex more within the past month, which complicates efforts to translate “how common is oral sex” into a clean percent of men who gave it in the last 30 days [5] [6]. The literature therefore requires careful attention to whether the survey question asked about giving, receiving, the last sexual encounter, or past‑month frequency [5] [6].
5. Best practical answer and reporting limits
Based on the sources available here, a defensible short answer is: past‑month prevalence estimates vary by study and cohort, with at least one older national study implying about 10% of men had given oral sex in the past month [1], while more recent probability samples show substantially higher recent engagement among younger adults though a single aggregated past‑month percentage for all U.S. men is not extractable from the provided excerpts [2] [4]. The reporting limitations are clear: modern national surveys [2] [4] measure past‑month behavior but the provided snippets do not include an explicit overall past‑month percentage for “men who gave oral sex,” so any headline figure beyond the cited studies would require consulting the full survey tables.