Objective To assess sexual activity and contraceptive knowledge and practice by gender among university students.

Methods Descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted at Ege University, Turkey, with 1000 volunteering students. Data collection was stopped when 500 students of each gender had participated.

Results Of the surveyed students, 50.3% (27.4% female, 73.2% male) reported having had sexual intercourse; the mean age at first sexual intercourse was 18.4 years for girls and 16.9 years for boys. We found that 44.5% of female and 30.6% of male students failed to use contraception at their first coitus, whereas 2.2% of female and 13.7% of male students failed to do so at their most recent intercourse. The rate of condom usage for students' first sexual encounter was 50.1% (35.8% female, 55.5% male) and was 67.8% (70.1% female, 66.9% male) at their most recent intercourse. Abortion was mentioned by 43.9% of female and 39.2% of male students as a method of preventing pregnancy after unprotected coitus.

Conclusion Male Turkish students had started sexual relations at a younger age but had less often unprotected first sex than female students.