During puberty, rising hormone levels contribute to an activation of sexual sensations and erotic thoughts and dreams for boys and girls. John Money in ig8o described the role of hormones as follows: “the correct conception of hormonal puberty is that it puts gas in the metaphorical tank and upgrades the model of the vehicle, but it does not build the engine nor program the itinerary of the journey.”
The relationship between pubertal hormones and sexual behavior is shown in the finding that boys who undergo “late” puberty (around ages fifteen or sixteen) generally have less and later teenage sexual activity — including masturbation and intercourse — than boys who have “early” puberty (around ages twelve or thirteen). Kinsey and his colleagues pointed out this pattern and we have some preliminary data showing that it is probably true. If testosterone levels of the pubertal boy increase the frequency or intensity of erections, for example, he may possibly have a heightened awareness of sexual sensations. Increased testosterone in the blood may also influence the brain, itself to activate sexual feelings or thoughts or to lower the threshold for external triggers that activate such feelings or thoughts. Boys with higher testosterone levels, then, are more likely to be more physically developed and sexually active. Shorter, less muscular, later-maturing boys may experience a social handicap. While having sexual feelings, they may feel less confident about their abilities and therefore “lag” in sexual behavior.
In parallel fashion, girls who undergo “late” puberty seem to have a lower rate of early adolescent sexual activity than girls who complete puberty at ages twelve or thirteen. Although a lower frequency or later age of participation in sexual activity might be explained by purely psychological or social factors (e.g., less physically developed girls may be more shy or self-conscious about sex with a partner), it appears that masturbation is less frequent and occurs later in late-maturing compared to early-maturing adolescent girls. Recently, a large cross-cultural study found similar evidence. According to Udry and Cliquet, data from five different countries show that girls who are younger at menarche tend to have intercourse and to give birth at earlier ages than girls with later menarche.
In contrast to the findings linking sexual activity to “early” puberty, when pubertal changes occur before age nine — a condition called precocious puberty — there is usually no accompanying change in sexual behavior. This is probably because the hormonal stimulation alone is not enough to initiate new behavior patterns without a state of psychosexual readiness that the younger child simply hasn’t attained.
While precocious puberty is usually a rare condition, occurring in about one in 10,000 children, there has recently been an epidemic of early sexual development among children in Puerto Rico. Premature breast development in infants and preschoolers, sometimes accompanied by the onset of periods, is the most common problem, with an estimated 3,000 Puerto Rican children (about one in fifty) having been affected between 1972 and the end of 1983. Many physicians suspect (but have been unable to prove) that the problem is caused by eating chicken that contains estrogen. Despite the fact that the Food and Drug Administration banned the use of estrogen to stimulate growth of food animals over a decade ago, tests have shown that some chickens raised in Puerto Rico contain high levels of this hormone. In addition, a majority of the children who stop eating , chicken (a relative staple of the Puerto Rican diet) have had a major reduction of their abnormal anatomical development.
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Men’s Health Erectyle Dysfunction