Puberty: Getting explanation about genitals

Is there somebody who received an explanation about the different parts of their genitals when starting puberty?

I once overheard a story that a girl's mother was explaining all the different parts of her vulva, while holding a mirror. I guess that she will not be the only one.

At school, twice during sex ed in different years. Concurrent with that, I got an explanation from mom on what masturbation was. She wanted me to keep the sheets clean while I did it 😃 She asked me something to that effect and used the word 'masturbate'. I didn't know, that what I had been doing, was called that. So she had to explain what she meant.

I think my pediatrician has made clear during exams that there is a distinction between the penis and testicles, and also has mentioned the prostate before, but overall most of the identification of the parts of the penis and testicles were explained in health class alongside all the other boys in my grade.

So she had to explain what she meant.

So a pretty awkward conversation with your mom? How did she explain it? Did she say anything about sperm?

If you have waited for the start of puberty to label parts and teach your girls about vulva, vagina etc then you have left it years to late.

If you have waited for the start of puberty to label parts and teach your girls about vulva, vagina etc then you have left it years to late.

And given the staggering amount of people, both men and women, who say 'vagina' when they're really talking about the vulva, I'd say that the teaching of basic female anatomy has failed big time.

We got taught about the parts of the male & female body during sex ed classes and then did the practical test on our friends.

@Tulip23, what practical tests are we talking about, and what grade were you in? We never had any sort of practical tests in my sex education classes...

The sex ed lessons were in Secondary School (HS) and the practicals test were a very private affair amongst friends, way outside of school.

The lady in the story mentioned in OP could have been me.

Mine are both adults now but before the rapid changes of puberty hand mirrors books and some private time was encouraged and taught them their anatomy.

There was poll on some site where about half surveyed could not name all their own external anatomy.

Yah. No. 0 sex education (went to a Catholic Grammar School and public secondary). My mother gave me a book that actually wasn’t horrible about explaining the basics. I got taught the practical by my cousin - including what was a tampon and how to use it when I told her I couldn’t go swimming because of my period.

I was in a study/program about growth and puberty (I've posted about it here before). So, puberty became kind of an open topic at home and we did discuss body parts and all the changes and had several books about it all.

@Nurse_Phillips Did your cousin actually show you the basics? Or was it just a general explanation with clothes on?

@molliewhite You were still lucky that you received a good book, then.

I think that it is remarkable that there used to be so little sex ed, and still is in some countries. We are blessed that it changed!

@Nurse_Phillips Did your cousin actually show you the basics? Or was it just a general explanation with clothes on?!

My cousin and I used to play doctor. A lot. The tampon story: she talked me through doing it in the bathroom with me.

My parents never talked to me about sex or puberty other than to say “don’t have sex until married”.

Only had the brief 5th grade sex ed lesson the one time and I honestly don’t even remember that.

When I began puberty, my parents left a copy of "Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask) on my bed. I recall only 3 chapters. The chapter on Female Anatomy (which I immediately skipped). The chapter on Male Anatomy (which I read thoroughly) and the chapter on Homosexuality. That chapter alone did more to damage me than anything I could imagine. While the definition of Homosexual definitely fit me, what didn't fit were the horrifying descriptions of what homosexuals did - put lightbulbs in the ass, Coke bottles and rings around their penis, etc. - all of which required embarrassing medical intervention.

My mom and dad never said a word about sex. But my father did try to “help” by driving me one night to the local “red light district” so that I could have “any girl I saw.” It was a horrible experience and I was so scared, I was nauseous and finally got my dad to drive back home.

Perhaps for these reasons, I have worked very hard to become a sex-positive person and speak openly with anyone about sexual practices. I hope that I always provide a safe, caring, and informative space for others to “play out” their fantasies so that they will never feel the way I did about my own.

For those born in the latter 40's into the ‘50’s most parents back then were imprinted with very prim & proper Victorian/prudish scenarios of sex. Sometimes us “Old Schools” might ponder how we even got here…There was zero to minimal discussions about anything sexual. Once a boy got to the age/point where he could read/comprehend the King's English most sex education came from Playboy/Penthouse etc.and medical books with perhaps stunning illustrations/photos…

I would ask my mums boyfriend. i remember getting out of the bath once and saying to him what are these and he said my balls. what is this as i skinned back my foreskin and he said my cock head. didnt make much sense at the time but at least i had a name for them.

I was told all the proper names for things, and what they did, way before puberty and I would hope most people do.

Learned through friends. Nope. Prude parents.

I was told not to touch my penis except to go to the bathroom. I was also told that playing with it was dirty.

When I turned 12 my parents gave me a book that explained absolutely nothing. It avoided all topics of body parts, what to do with them, and how to use them. It was useless.

I didn’t learn more until I turned 16. I missed out on many masturbation sessions and thought I was peeing in the bed at night.

Health Class in High School was a joke too but I learned a lot in my human sexuality course in college.

I didn’t learn more until I turned 16. I missed out on many masturbation sessions and thought I was peeing in the bed at night.

wet dreams ?

If you wait until puberty to talk about genitals you are many years to late.

Should be open discussion at much younger age, kids ask questions when little, especially when see mom and dad arent the same. That is the time.

My parents never said a thing o gave an explanation of what sex was or how it worked or what the proper names were. They left it to the school I suppose. In school a Jesuit priest gave sex ed of a sorts. He was a sort of wishy-washy guy, nice and all but was far too poetic about things, never using proper words or terms but making up descriptions himself. He wrote a few (approved by the church) books on ‘sex’ and feelings but it was so general as to not really explain much. He later went into a sort of non-political politics, being in the forefront of the early local Green/ecological movement. And ran a sort of commune out in the country where people/teens could go for meditation, sorting feelings out and such. There was supposedly some nudism involved for some.

But luckily, aside from him, I was able to buy English language books on sex in the Belgian city I lived in without any trouble. And if you knew where to go, many were available, all kinds about what were at the time considered sexual ‘aberrations’ like homosexuality, lesbianism, bondage, SM etc. That is where I got most of my explanations from: books.

About the only advice my father ever gave me was ‘for fuck’s sake never get a girl pregnant'. That is why, after coming back from his overseas trips to the Far East or war zones in the merchant marine, he'd give me a big box of expensive condoms (often from Hong Kong, Singapore or Japan/Okinawa.

All he'd say was something like ‘you know how to use these right? Well make sure you do when you need them.’

That was it from my parents, his sexual advice on the avoidance of pregnancy above all things.

Ah yes, and occasional rants about what would happen if I didn't get circumcised (infection, no cure, amputation).

But now that I think about it, he never really used terms like penis/prick/willy or whatever. Just vague roundabout mentioning.

My parents never said a word to us about any of that. All of the PROPER explanations I received about genitals came from sex-ed in school.

I knew most of it long before puberty, partly because I was very curious and read books, partly because I overheared my father and mother talked about it, and partly because my father answered me when I asked.

Still my parents did not by themselves teach me much about sexuality.

But my father told me in my perpuberty period and repeated it in my early puberty, that this was the time when boys that are often sick will have a very thorrough pelvic exam where the doctor will look and measure many things through the urethra and anus. He did not say it would happen me, but since I was often sick in that period, I got sure it would happen, and it did.

I dio not remember the exact wording he used and he did not tell all at once, and some of it I absorbed through overhearing my mother and father talking, and at those times more specifically about me.

In either case, each time I heard the word “puberty” I imagined a boy being placed at an exam table with legs in stirrups, but not exactly the kind of stirrups used on women, and the doctor doing procedures through his anus. This imagination was exactly the result of the talk I heared, ind it turned out to be not far from reality too.

My mother never said anything not even after my period started in the summer of 1974.

I learned the most about genitals, female and male, when the following year I was part of a group who had to give a report about the genitals. Standing in front of your 6th grader class talking about a male penis is pretty bold. Lots of snickers and giggles from the boys.

I learned the most about genitals, female and male, when the following year I was part of a group who had to give a report about the genitals. Standing in front of your 6th grader class talking about a male penis is pretty bold. Lots of snickers and giggles from the boys.

And yet I bet if they were ever alone, they'd have just loved having a girl doing a detailed exam of their penis … ha ha ha.

@MissStress My mother never said anything not even after my period started in the summer of 1974.

Seems kind of scary if you don't know what's happening. When I began to ejaculate during masturbation, sometime in the 1950's, I had absolutely no idea what was going on and I thought I had damaged something. As much as I tried to stop, I couldn't, 😧and went on for some time not knowing.

Seems kind of scary if you don't know what's happening.

It was a surprise to say the least. The sex ed talk about periods didn't happen until the following fall. I had experienced it so it wasn't all that informative for me.

I even made an over head projection diagram of the penis and testicles. I was thorough on my part.