Sexual Interest and Activity in Adolescents With Spina Bifida

Summary Of 63 adolescents with spina bifida, most had had some form of sex education. The source was much more often schools and parents than their peers. Sexual interest was almost universally acknowledged and was of a markedly pre‐occupying nature in about one‐quarter of the cases. Some level of physical intimacy in heterosexual relationships had been established by 18 teenagers at some time or another, but boys, in particular, were deeply worried about their capacity to establish full sexual relations. A capacity for potency was claimed by about half the boys. Worries and uncertainties were very common amongst the older subjects and there is a strong case for a programme of group and individual counselling lo be established.