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More than half of American teens age 15 to 19 have engaged in oral sex, increasing to nearly 70 percent for those who are 18 and 19, according to the largest federal study of the nation's sexual practices.

The study also found that 11 percent of women age 18 to 44 reported having had at least one homosexual experience in their lifetime, up from 4 percent in the last study, conducted in 1992.

Taken together, the two findings suggest a possible shift in sexual practices, in which women and girls are using oral and gay sex "as a safer alternative than [vaginal] sex with men," said epidemiologist William Mosher of the National Center for Health Statistics, the study's lead author.

"If it is seen as a safer alternative, it is an interesting response to the campaigns to reduce teen pregnancy and to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and HIV," he said.

The study, however, found that only 9 percent of the teens reported using condoms during oral sex. Studies have shown that gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes and the human papillomavirus can all be transmitted in this manner.

"They have not been given a strong enough message about the health risks of oral sex," said Dr. Claire Brindis of the University of California, San Francisco.

James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a reproductive-health organization in Washington, D.C., said the study — in which females and males reported similar levels of experience with oral sex — showed that society is undergoing a social transition sexually, with women and girls becoming more sexually confident.

"It calls into question the stereotype of boys as hunters and girls as prey. Something going on here is creating more balance between the sexes than we have seen before."

But Brindis cautioned that some of the apparent increases may simply represent an increased comfort level in discussing intimate behaviors, rather than an actual increase in activity. Some people may just now "be disclosing information that had probably occurred for decades," she said.

However, most experts agreed the numbers represent a real phenomenon.

There have been widespread anecdotal reports that teens are increasingly engaging in oral sex to prevent pregnancy and the transmission of sexual diseases, but the new survey is the first to actually document the incidence on a national level, Mosher said.

"It's good to finally have some reliable information on that," he said.

The data show that, among teens ages 15 to 19, 55 percent of males and 54 percent of females reported engaging in oral sex. Among those 18 to 19, the figure grows to about 70 percent for both sexes.

Overall, more teens had oral sex than vaginal sex: 53 percent of girls age15 to 19 and 49 percent of boys reported that they had had intercourse.

The study, conducted between March 2002 and March 2003, involved in-home interviews of 12,571 people by trained female interviewers.