The Human Sexuality Elective is a student-run elective that was started five years ago. Its purpose and mandate is to give medical students an opportunity to become comfortable with various aspects of sexuality, and to learn how to integrate this important component of patients’ lives into the provision of health care.
Topics for presentation were chosen to complement the formal sexuality teaching and to go beyond the scope of the typical model of the young, healthy, heterosexual patient. These topics included adolescent sexuality, lesbian/gay/bisexual issues, transgendered issues, sexuality and the disabled, geriatric sexuality, the sex trade, and male sexual dysfunction.
The elective has evolved to encompass the following objectives:
1) To learn about the common anxieties and concerns regarding sexuality among different subgroups of patients (i.e. adolescents, the elderly, the disabled).
2) To learn about the development of sexual identity and the social and cultural factors which complicate people’s relationships with their bodies.
3) To be introduced to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered culture and to learn about the specific health care needs and expectations of such patients.
4) To learn about the Canadian sex trade and to learn about the specific health care needs and expectations of individuals employed in the sex trade.
5) To learn about the impact of infertility and the issues involved in reproductive technologies.
The elective has traditionally been offered to medical students and has now been expanded to include rehabilitation therapy students and nursing students. Over the years that it has been offered, this elective has received much support and enthusiasm from both students and presenters. It is hoped that in the future the organization and preparation of the elective will be shared by all three departments in the Faculty of Health Sciences, which will help build stronger ties between students as future colleagues in health care.
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Site last updated on April 24, 2003
