Nowadays the young of both sexes mix freely in almost all social activities. The authority of parental or ecclestical injunctions is usually questioned with skepticism and ignored. In this situation, it is not surprising that sexual relationships of some sort are common before marriage. Among those of higher educational level, who have a stronger motivation to defer marriage, this may take the form of patting, which consists of intimate physical contacts designed to increase the intensity of erotic arousal, stopping short of coitus , but sometimes culminating in orgasm . However, it is not easy to drive with simultaneous pressure on the accelerator and the brake pedals , and many individuals are unable or unwilling to accept the restraint involved in patting and have intercourse before marriage.
Premarital conception is thus commonplace in our society.
About 55 percent of those women who marry before the age of twenty are pregnant before marriage, and illegitimate birth is also most common in this age group. Wholly reliable methods of contraception are not often compatible with the circumstances of premarital intercourse , and besides, risk-taking behavior is common in this situation. In many species, mating takes place only at those restricted times when the female partner is in oestrus, and this may occur only during a limited season each year, or even at intervals of several years. However, human sexual union may take place at any time, even during menstruation . Desire may be greater in some women at the time of ovulation in midcycle, and just before and after menstruation , but there is no clear-cut and universal cycle of human sexual responsiveness comparable with oestrus.