When a person reaches puberty, generally the school system to which that person belongs has a program to discuss sexuality. Also, if the person comes from a supportive family background, then that will also be a topic of discussion at one point. Both methods are intended to give the person a better understanding of reproduction, because it really is something that everyone should have a decent amount of knowledge about.
Unfortunately, some people in various undeveloped countries have no idea about their own fertility. This is due in part to their culture assuming that the person will find out all that he or she needs to know about fertility. However, that does not bode especially well for girls that have just started their periods, because they might mistakenly think that they are hemorrhaging.
That being said, there are various cultures that place a significant amount of importance on fertility when a boy or a girl comes of age. These cultures might celebrate sexuality through various rituals and dances. In some Native American cultures, for example, when a man comes of age he is led on a spirit quest, in which he not only finds out about who he is physically, but also who he is spiritually.
All one has to do is look at the art of various cultures to understand the importance that is placed on human sexuality. For example, many things in art are shaped in such a way as to emulate the various shapes of the human reproductive system. Fertility is something that is literally forced into a person's face if they happen to live in a major city of the United States. Explicit images were once banned from mainstream media, but now they are everywhere a person (no matter what their age) looks.
Thus, reproduction is something that many people actually find out about sooner rather than later. Clothing, music, movies and television shows are just filled with it. But really, do these people know the details of how reproduction occurs? Most people are aware of the basic moves, but what needs to happen internally is that the sperm of the male has to meet the egg of the female. The fertilized egg needs to attach itself to the wall of the female's uterus, and that is where the fetus will grown until it is ready to be born.
Many people are aware of the risk that unprotected intercourse poses in terms of both disease and conception. So, these people go about finding methods to protect against both. The two most popular forms of protection are condoms for men and birth control pills for women.
However, there are also some people who are at the point in their lives where they feel that they are ready to have children but they find out that they are not able to conceive naturally. For men, certain kinds of medication can cause low sperm count or erectile dysfunction. For women, they might have trouble conceiving become of a reproductive malfunction or unbalanced hormone levels. Whatever the situation, medical technology has advanced, and so should people's reproductive understanding.
