Hello,
Thank you for your letter. Its completely normal to have questions about puberty and it can be a confusing time but youre very welcome to ask me whatever you want.
I can hear that youre feeling confused about when erections normally happen. Erections are your bodys way of getting ready to have sex, so they often happen when youre thinking about sex or something related. But they can also happen at odd times. Most boys have an erection when they wake up in the morning and sometimes when theyre not expecting it during the day. Sometimes they happen with no warning at all, even when youre not thinking about sex
While youre going through puberty, your body is still working out when it needs to have an erection, so you might find that they are happening a lot more than youd like! Once puberty has finished, you should find erections are usually a bit less random.
It may be that some of your friends are having similar experiences too but you havent spoken about it with them just yet. I wonder if there is a friend youd feel able to talk about this with, or a brother or male relative?
If youd like to talk to a Childline counsellor about this further you can ring our free phone number (0800 1111) or log in for a 1-2-1 chat. You could also check out the information about puberty for boys in Explore.
Take care,
Sam
You can talk privately to a counsellor online or call 0800 1111 for free.
You can ask me about anything you want, there's nothing too big or small. I read every single letter but I can only answer a few each week. My replies are published here on my page.
