We explain what sexuality is and what aspects it involves. Sexuality in adolescence and sexually transmitted diseases.
What is sexuality?
Sexuality is commonly understood as the forms of emotional, cultural and behavioral relationship between man and womanor between male and female animals.
Talking about sexuality, however, is not only talking about reproduction and sexual organs, but also about the cultural implications that sexual behavior generates and has generated in human civilization, for example.
It can be said that human sexuality involves four equally important aspects:
- Biological aspect. It represents the drives of the body and the mandate to reproduce that the species contains;
- Psychological aspect. It represents the conscious or unconscious way of assuming sexuality;
- Social aspect. It has to do with social pressures and social discourses around sexuality, what the historical moment says about it;
- Ethical aspect. Linked to responsibility and individual and collective ways of managing sexuality as a relationship with others.
According to the World Health Organization, in fact, sexuality encompasses “sex, gender identities and roles, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy, reproduction and sexual orientation.” Furthermore, “It is lived and expressed through thoughts, fantasies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, practices, roles and interpersonal relationships.”
Sexuality in adolescence
Since adolescence is the stage of human development in which desire awakens and the body matures reproductivelyit is the first contact of the individual with his sexuality, which represents a set of doubts, explorations and discoveries that are not always easy to endure.
During this stage, adolescents are forging their identity and their relationship with themselves and with others, a key process in their adult lives. Adolescents often explore their sexuality in diverse ways, often through experiences that allow them to define what they like and what not.
This means that during their stages of change and exploration they are particularly vulnerable to risk, which requires open sexual educationwhich instructs them to live their desires by taking the necessary precautions regarding early pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or the emotional and psychological impact of the first sexual experiences.
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
Sexually transmitted diseases are a part of human sexual life to consider, and can range from a temporary and curable discomfort to a chronic or lethal disease. Some of the best known STDs are:
- Syphilis. Caused by bacteria Treponema pallidumcauses small and often painless ulcers on the mucous membranes, genitals, and hands or feet. Over time, since it is a chronic disease, red spots and lesions also appear in the nervous system and circulatory system.
- Gonorrhea. Also known as gonorrhea or gonococcia, it is caused by a bacteria commonly called gonococcusand which usually affects the genital mucous membranes, the urinary system, the eyes, the pharynx or the rectum. It causes foul-smelling purulent lesions and can cause infertility in women.
- AIDS. Acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, it is the product of incurable infection with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), which is transmitted through the exchange of fluids. This disease destroys the body's ability to defend itself and leaves it at the mercy of other secondary diseases.
- HPV. Acronym for Human Papillomavirus, it is one of the most common infections in the world, which includes a large family of skin viruses, some of which cause warts and other types of flat lesions, some of which are linked to breast cancer. cervix and penis.
- Crabs. It is an ectoparasite linked to the louse, which lives in the genital areas and feeds on blood, causing itching in the area.
