Macho Attitudes Undermining Adolescent Sexual Health

Men will always be men. They have preferred games, clothing, ways of movement and even attitude in certain issues.

This is also the same for young adolescents. There is always the attitude of getting strong and physically better in sports, being “cool” in front of everybody and having decent schoolwork without being dubbed as a “geek” or “nerd”.

That is why some kids end up as bullies because they want to dominate and their idea of being manly is to be dominant among others even though it will hurt them.

While the sound of adopting a macho attitude is bad enough for young males, this attitude can also contribute to further problems in their sexual behavior.

Whether we like it or not, many adolescent male today are engaging in various sexual activities and these could lead to serious medical consequences.

The trouble with the macho attitude when it comes to sex is that this type of attitude suggests that real men do not have to seek help when they feel bad. They believe that they can show their masculinity by going through various diseases without long term effect or even feeling pain.

When this attitude is adapted to sexual problems, this attitude will cause the adolescent male pain not only for a short while but the pain could lead to fatal consequences.

A study on this type of behavior was published in a journal named Pediatrics.

Based on research; most of the sexually transmitted diseases or STDs experienced by adolescent male who have the macho attitude towards sickness only report their sexual problems when they are unable to handle the pain.

Because they think that seeking assistance from a medical professional is a sign of weakness, they opted to ignore the pain for a while.

This stereotype is very dangerous and should be stopped as soon as possible. Without immediate medical attention, a simple sexually transmitted disease can lead to additional health problems when they are ignored.

Some adolescent male try to cure their medical condition based on popular knowledge but this even places the male adolescent in a more dangerous situation.

The side effects of the specific medicine for STDs might be too drastic for the adolescent male. Instead of curing the problem, self medication can only cause further complications.

This macho stereotype can be easily prevented when parents reach out to their kids. Parents have to be alerted when they kids feel pain as soon as possible so that they can guide their kids to proper medical attention.

The subject of sexual problem might be a taboo in some homes but it’s necessary for parents to talk to their kids about the medical problems related to sex.

Studies in the same journal have suggested that kids who opted to avoid communicating with their parents even with the searing pain often end up in a dangerous medical situation.

The macho attitude actually teaches you to be strong despite of challenges. But adolescent male have to be taught by their parents to speak out especially when they feel pain after a sexual encounter.