Beating around the bush while talking about the birds and bees is not ‘sex education’. It is important that you educate your teenagers about sex the right way. Be crisp, accurate and straight forward while answering all the questions related to sex. To make your job easier, here are answers to the 10 basic questions about sex.
1. What is sex?
The word sex can be used to describe the gender of an individual and also means intercourse or coitus. However, sex as a term, does not mean penetration of the penis into the vagina alone. Activities like foreplay, kissing, mutual masturbation, all fall under this category.
2. Is sex good or bad?
Sex helps boost immunity, reduces stress, aids in weight loss, and reduces the risk of prostate cancer and heart diseases. However, sex with multiple partners, one night stands, unsafe sex or sex without the use of contraceptive aids can be harmful and lead to several sexually transmitted diseases and increases the risk of HIV too.
3. What is masturbation?
Masturbation involves stimulating your genitals (penis and vagina) for sexual pleasure or achieving and orgasm. It is often thought that only men masturbate, but females masturbate too.
4. Is it safe to masturbate?
Masturbation is absolutely safe as long as it is done in moderation (too much of a good thing can be bad for you, right?). In fact, it is the easiest way to achieve sexual pleasure. Masturbation helps you learn more about your body and helps prevent premature ejaculation. However, if the act starts affecting your work and studies, you need to put a stop and limit yourself to masturbating only when you are sexually aroused.
5. Is watching porn safe?
Researchers say that porn improves your attitude towards sexuality and increases pleasure in long-term relationships. In fact, it has been found to reduce the level of sex offences in adolescents. Studies have proved that watching porn is good as long as it does not affect your studies/work and does not become an addiction.
6. What does puberty mean?
Puberty is defined as the age at which adolescents attain sexual maturity and are able to reproduce. Puberty in girls is indicated with the start of menstrual cycle or periods, breast development and growth of pubic hair. In boys, a deepened voice, development of muscles and facial hair are signs of puberty.
7. What is virginity?
The term virgin or virginity is used for girls or boys who have never had sexual intercourse. The meaning of virginity may differ from person to person. While some may deem a person’s virginity lost only if they have penetrative sex, others might believe it to be lost even on being involved in acts like oral sex, anal sex or even kissing. Often adolescents feel the need to have sex, to fit into their group of peers. Peer pressure should never be a reason to have sex and ideally, teenagers must wait for the right time to engage in intercourse with their partners.
8. What are contraceptives?
Contraception is a method to prevent pregnancy and contraceptives are methods or devices that help you in the process. The most effective forms are tubal ligation for women and vasectomy in men. Other contraceptives that are commonly used are condoms for males and females, contraception pills or patches, birth control pills, other devices like diaphragms, copper T, vaginal tablets or rings. Natural contraception methods include the calendar method and the withdrawal method where the penis is removed from the vagina before ejaculation.
9. How do you get pregnant?
Unsafe sex or sex without the use of contraceptives leads to pregnancy. During an intercourse without the use of contraceptives, if the sperm fertilises the ovum, it leads to pregnancy. This usually happens when two consenting adults have sex to reproduce. In some cases, there may be accidental pregnancies if they do not use contraception, or if it fails. Oral sex does not lead to pregnancy.
10. How do you not get pregnant?
Washing your underwear with your sisters’, oral sex, ejaculation inside the condom, having sex with clothes on — all these do not cause pregnancy. The sperm and egg need to mate and that can happen only when a man ejaculates inside the woman’s vagina without wearing a condom.
