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Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a
child's
body matures into an
adult body capable of
sexual reproduction. It is initiated by
hormonal signals from the
brain to the
gonads: the
ovaries in a girl, the
testes in a boy. In response to the signals, the gonads produce hormones that stimulate
libido and the growth, function, and transformation of the brain,
bones,
muscle,
blood,
skin,
hair,
breasts, and
sex organs.
Physical growth—height and weight—accelerates in the first half of puberty and is completed when an adult body has been developed. Until the maturation of their reproductive capabilities, the pre-pubertal physical differences between boys and girls are the external sex organs.
On average, girls begin puberty around ages 10–11; boys around ages 11–12.
[1][2] Girls usually complete puberty around ages 15–17,
[2][3][4] while boys usually complete puberty around ages 16–17.
[2][3][5] The major landmark of puberty for females is
menarche, the onset of menstruation, which occurs on average between ages 12–13;
[6][7][8][9] for males, it is the first
ejaculation, which occurs on average at age 13.
[10] In the 21st century, the average age at which children, especially girls, reach puberty is lower compared to the 19th century, when it was 15 for girls and 16 for boys.
[11] This can be due to any number of factors, including improved nutrition resulting in rapid body growth, increased weight and fat deposition,
[12] or exposure to
endocrine disruptors such as
xenoestrogens, which can at times be due to food consumption or other environmental factors.
[13][14] Puberty which starts earlier than usual is known as
precocious puberty. Puberty which starts later than usual is known as
delayed puberty.
Notable among the
morphologic changes in size, shape, composition, and functioning of the pubertal body, is the development of
secondary sex characteristics, the "filling in" of the child's body; from girl to woman, from boy to man. Derived from the Latin
puberatum (age of maturity), the word
puberty describes the physical changes to sexual maturation, not the
psychosocial and cultural maturation denoted by the term
adolescent development in
Western culture, wherein
adolescence is the period of mental transition from childhood to
adulthood, which overlaps much of the body's period of puberty.
[15]
