For Teens - Puberty

Puberty
What is puberty?

This is for all of you teens out there. Maybe even for parents of teens as well. Many years ago I was a department head on a Davy base. The base command had adopted a local high school to support. As a result all the department heads, and even some deputy heads , were “expected” to spend at least one hour a week tutoring at the high school.

So, one day I was in a freshman class discussing social studies when a student asked why another student was acting a ccertain way. I don't remember exactly what he asked. It was a long time ago and I am getting on in age so my memory is not all that great. But, I remember what I said and what the result was.

I simply said he was probably going through puberty right now. All I got was a bunch of blank stares. One young lady asked me what is puberty. I was a little taken back by that. When I was in high school they taught us all about puberty and its effects in our health/gym classes. I turned to the teacher and asked don't they teach these kids about puberty here? She said no, the school feels that the parents should tell them about it.

I was a little surprised about this policy as I feel kids should be informed about it when they are going through it. Puberty usually starts around age 14 and last for four years, usually up to their 18th year. I say usually because you can have early starters as early as <12 and late starters as late as 16>. But some 87% of all children start in their 14th year. That means from 6 months before their 14th birthday to 6 months after their 14th birthday.

So, what is puberty? Very simply put, it is when the body and the brain changes from a child's body and brain and begins tochange to an adult's body and brain. This happens to both boys and girls. Boys become men and girls become women.

In the boy's case a hormone called testastaron floods the boys body and brain and starts changing everything including stimulating development of male secondary Sexual characteristics and begins to develop their sexual maturity. They usually spurt up an inch or two very fast, develop am Adam's apple and their voice changes, usually getting deeper, hair begins to grow in places not grown before, some more and some less, They also begin to produce sperm that enables them to cause women they might have sex with to become pregnant.

However, there is another element to this stew pot called gens. Gens are elements inherited from you parents, grandparents an so on through your ancestors and they can override the normal results of puberty is some cases. This is true for girls an well as boys. For example, although a bo normal grows taller his gens may prevent him form soing so and he mrains his current height and grows more slowly. That is the power of gens.

For the girls the magic hormone is estrogen. This so called sex hormone causes young girls to develop a soft layer of fat pretty much all over their body which gives them that soft curvy look. They also develop breast which are intended for feeding new born babies. They also start their menstrual cycle, more commonly called their period. This is simply the uterus discharging accumulated waste from the body. It can look nasty and can also cause some discomfort or even crams in some women. Everyone is different after all. The big thing for women is they be gin to drop eggs into the tube where they can become pregnant. Again gens play a large roll here as well.

These changes and some more minor changes occur over the next four years until the child reaches full maturity. This can be a very dangerous time for teens because the changes are delicate in some cases and if the child is taking the wrong kinds of stimulates they can disrupt the process. So children going through puberty should avoid tobaco, alcohol, caffeine and of course drugs. Even coffee is not recommended.

There is a lot more involved here but, I do not have time or space to go into it here. If you want to know more, check out a book from the library.

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