Health and Sexuality

1. Health and Sexuality

2. What is sexuality? • Brainstorm

3. What is Sexuality? “ Sexuality is a persons own sense of identification as male or female.” It includes: • Male or female anatomy • The lifespan from infancy to old age • Love, affection, intimacy, belonging • Attitudes, feelings, expression • Reproduction • Culture & religious influences • Self image, self respect

4. Brainstorm... • Which factors influence teens to become interested in sexuality? • Increased sex hormones during puberty (testosterone) • Curiosity • Perception of being grown up • Loyalty in a relationship • Rebelling • Expression of intimacy • Pressure • Media • Everyone is doing it

5. Brainstorm... • Which of the above factors would you NOT want to have influence your decisions about sexual activity?

6. Brainstorm..... • What is abstinence? Why would a teen choose to remain abstinent? • Wait till marriage • STI’s • Values, beliefs, and religion • Emotional feelings • Don’t feel ready

7. Sexuality through the Lifespan • Early Childhood (0-5 years) • School Aged Children (5-12) • Adolescence (12-18 years) • Early- Mid Adulthood (19-64 years) • Late Adulthood (65+ years)

8. Early Childhood • Physical • Exploration of own body, pleasure from touching • Toilet Trained 3-4 years) • Social (behavioural) • Begin to mimic adults • Curious about gender and their bodies • Try to look at nude bodies • Ask questions about birth and pregnancy

9. Early Childhood Continued • Emotional/Mental • Rely on caregivers • Experience basic-complex emotions (joy, fear, surprise, anger) • Learn to trust when needs met • Learn to love when hugged, kissed, held • Begin to develop gender identity • Communicates through crying, laughing, giggling • Learns word without knowing the meaning ] • Develops curiosity about how babies are made and develops own ideas

10. School Aged Children (5-12 years) • Physical • Experience pleasures from touching own body • Sexual orientation (5-8 years) • Hormonal Changes (9-11 years) • May show signs of puberty • Begin to have awareness of being attracted to people • Develop crushes (friends, TV, music, etc) • Social • Uses sexual language to tease, joke, shock, impress friends • Start/continue sexual play • Be modest, desire privacy • Begin to conform with peers (dress, speech, actions) • Compare their own situations with peers and talk about fairness (5-8 years) • Question limits and rules set by parents, family, authority (9-11 years)

11. School Aged Children continued • Emotional • Learn what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour • New awareness of authority • Shows strong interest in male and female roles (often stereotypical) • Experience pressures to meet gender expectations (toys, clothes, hobbies)- often males experience more pressure • Have strong same-sex friendships • May experience emotional ups and downs, wonder “Am I normal?” • Influence by peers, but parents and family are still the main source of values

12. Adolescence (12-18 years) • Physical • Puberty changes continue • Menstruation, sperm production • Able to impregnate or become pregnant • Have a stronger sense of attraction towards others • May experience pleasure from kissing and petting • May have a sexual fantasy • Social • May behave like an adult one moment and a child the next (rapid developmental changes) • May begin to date or develop intimate sexual relationships • May explore or participate in sexual activities from kissing, holding hands, to sexual intercourse. • May makes decisions about birth control and safer sex • May engage in risk-taking activities (speeding, drinking, unprotected sex) • May experience break ups

13. Emotional • Have greater interest in sexuality • Have stronger desire of gaining a sense of personal identity and independence • May continue to have self-doubt about ones own body or attractiveness • Social interaction patterns and dating behaviour are influenced by own cultural and family values • May experience stress, anxiety, and depression related to society’s homophobia and pressure to conform • May experience increase peer pressure to engage in sexual activity • May perceive sexual intercourse as a natural expression of love • Sexual values may be strongly influenced by the popular media, peers, family and own cultural community • Have to deal with double standards

14. Early-Mid Adulthood • Physical • Physiological maturation completed • Males experience nocturnal erections and wet dreams • Females experience clitoral erection, vaginal lubrication during wet dreams • Possibility of cancer • Women- breast and pap test • Men - testicular • Pregnancy • Physiological and hormonal changes in men and women (45-60 years menopause) • Social • Date, remain single, select long term partner, marriage, family, career, life decisions • Explore different ways of expressing sexual intimacy and having sex • May experience break ups, divorce, death of loved ones • Possibility of grand parenting

15. Emotional • May have increased ability to integrate own personal, cultural, religious, spiritual and humanistic values with own sexuality • May continue to experience pressures from peers, family and society to behave within the gender expectations (eg. Date same social class or cultural community, get married by a certain age, importance of career) • With age, may experience greater confidence with own sexuality (especially women) • Some couples may experience greater satisfaction in sex and sexual intimacy • Gay and lesbian parents need to affirm both their gay and parental identity • Sexuality continues to be shaped by social expectations (monogamy) • May struggle with emotional and social adjustments of dating again after leaving a long term relationship or losing a partner • May be influenced by negative social attitudes towards ageing

16. Late Adulthood (65+ years) • Physical • Continue to have sexual desires • Respond sexually, but slower • May continue to experience orgasm • Progressive physiological changes such as decreased testosterone and sperm production • Sexual dysfunction • Social • Similar to Early/Min adulthood • Sexual behaviours more intimate focusing on touching and sensitivity rather than genital activities

17. Emotional • Need for physical affection • May experience social isolation related to the death of a partner or peer • May be stigmatized by social stereotypes of sexuality and aging

19. Definitions of Terms Related to Sexual Orientation • Sexual Orientation: The physical and emotional attraction of someone to personsof the opposite, same sex or both. • Homophobia: A fear and extreme dislike of gays, lesbians and bisexuals (homosexuals), often exhibited by prejudice, discrimination, harassment and acts of violence. • Heterosexual: Someone who is physically and emotionally attracted to people of the opposite sex.

20. Homosexual: Someone who is physically and emotionally attracted to people of the same sex. • Gay: A term for “homosexual”. This can refer to both males and females, but increasingly is used only to refer to men. • Lesbian: A female “homosexual” • Bisexual: Someone who is attracted physically and emotionally to persons of both the same sex and the opposite sex.

21. Sexual Behaviour: How someone expresses themselves sexually. • Sexual Identity: How an individual presents to the world i.e. heterosexual identity, gay/lesbian, and bisexual identity. • Gender Identity: Someone’s sense of being male or female. • Transsexual/Transgendered: Someone whose gender identity is different from her or his biological sex. • Heterosexism: The belief that heterosexuality is better than any other form of sexual orientation. The assumption that everyone is heterosexual unless otherwise indicated.