PUBERTY
About the age of 9 to 12 children’s bodies begin to undergo remarkable changes that will transform them into adults. ‘Puberty’ describes the series of physical changes that take a child to sexual maturity, the period of life during which these changes happen. Puberty is complete for a girl when she is capable of child-bearing, for a boy when he can father a child.
Adolescence is the process of becoming an adult in every sense – emotionally, intellectually and physically. Adolescence starts about the same time as puberty but often goes on for longer.
The physical changes of puberty begin for most girls between the ages of 9 and 11: for a few, a year or so younger or older. Boys generally begin to change a couple of years later than do girls. Though puberty can begin at different ages and proceed at different rates, once it gets going the changes happen in much the same order for all girls and boys. From the beginning to end, puberty is controlled and ordered by hormones. The co-ordinated action of hormones produced mainly by the pituitary gland and the gonads (ovaries in girls and testes in boys) regulate the progress of puberty. The hormones of the adrenal and thyroid glands play a smaller part.
Nobody is quite certain what triggers the onset of puberty. It is thought that body size is the main factor. When you reach a certain stage of growth – bone size, amount of muscle and fat (and this is different for each individual) – the hypothalamus at the base of the brain sends chemical messages via the blood to the nearby pituitary gland. The pituitary responds to these messages by producing more growth hormone, which is released into the blood and circulates throughout the body. This leads to the growth spun that is one of the major events of puberty. Every bone and muscle in the body grows; during this stage, which lasts four to five years in girls and seven to eight years in boys.
Your genes and sex hormones make sure that there are different growth rates) in certain parts of the body, so that you’ll finish up the right shape for your sex: the most obvious difference is that girls develop wider hips while boys develop more in the bones and muscles of the shoulders. Differences in body composition also develop during puberty. Women finish up with twice as much fat as men, and men’s bones and muscles weigh one and a half times as much as those of women.
During the most rapid phase of the growth spurt your mind may be a bit slow in catching up with the changes in body proportions. Adolescents often go through a stage of clumsy movements. You reach for something and your hand goes a bit further than it did a month ago, far enough to knock things over. Your stride becomes longer so that there is a tendency to trip and bump into things. These awkward movements may be embarrassing but don’t worry: as the growth spurt slows down your brain will adjust to your new body shape and size.
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