Children with precocious puberty may grow quickly at first and be tall, compared with their peers. But, because their bones mature more quickly than normal, they often stop growing earlier than usual. This can cause them to be shorter than average as adults.
The link between early puberty and shorter life expectancy may be partly explained by its negative impact on cardio-metabolic health and diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes.
Final height is influenced by both height and the age of onset of the PGS in normal maturing children. A normal but early puberty exerts a negative effect on final height. A delayed PGS exerts a positive effect on final height.
During puberty, growth speeds up again. This is called the pubertal growth spurt. Before puberty, boys and girls grow at similar speeds, but during puberty boys grow more than girls. The average height of an adult man is 14cm taller than the average height of an adult woman.
But it's perfectly normal for puberty to begin at any point between the ages of 8 and 13 in girls and 9 and 14 in boys. There's not usually any need to worry if puberty does not start around the average age, but it's a good idea to speak to your GP for advice if it starts before 8 or has not started by around 14.
Precocious puberty is rare, meaning it affects about 1% or less of the U.S. population. Many more girls are affected than boys. One study suggests that African American girls have some early breast development or some early pubic hair more often than white girls or Hispanic girls.
The onset of adolescence, generally between 12 and 14, is the hardest age for a teenage girl. The hormones of puberty cause her to feel her emotions more intensely but she has not yet developed the reasoning skills to know how to handle them.
Most boys with constitutional delayed puberty are short compared with their peers, but because they have a delayed growth spurt, they usually catch up to other boys by the time they are 18 and have heights in the normal range as adults.
During puberty, boys and girls will have a growth spurt and grow to their adult height. So that means girls who start puberty the latest will still be getting taller in their mid-teens. For boys, the latest to reach puberty will still be getting taller into their late teens.
A simple method to predict adult height is to double the child's height at age 2. Girls develop more quickly, so doubling their height at 18 months old can also be used as an estimate of how tall they will be as adults.
"Early bloomers" tend to grow at a faster rate and reach their adult height before "late bloomers." On average, however, girls tend to reach their peak height at 12 years of age, and boys reach their peak at 14 years.
Girls who reach puberty early are more physically developed and thus more likely to be accepted by older boys,6 who generally engage in more undesirable behaviors than younger children. Such peers are likely to provide more opportunities for deviant behaviors as well as model and reinforce such behaviors.
For most children, early puberty starts for no known reason. It can run in families. Sometimes there is a problem in the brain, such as an injury, a tumor or an infection. Early puberty can also be caused by a problem in the sex glands (testes or ovaries), the thyroid gland or the adrenal glands.
If not diagnosed and treated at an early stage, central precocious puberty (CPP) can compromise final adult height, cause incongruity between psychological and physical development, and may also trigger psychological problems arising from early menarche.
A major growth spurt happens at the time of puberty, usually between 8 to 13 years of age in girls and 10 to 15 years in boys. Puberty lasts about 2 to 5 years.
Early bloomers may start to notice changes in their bodies as early as age 10, whereas late bloomers may start at age 14. Of course, these changes could easily fall anywhere in between. Those who started on the later side, can expect to keep reaching new heights until the age of 18.
If your child doesn't show any physical changes of puberty by 14 years for girls or 15 for boys, you should consider the possibility that they are experiencing delayed puberty. Your doctor will examine your child and suggest some tests to find the cause.
Mid-Teens (13-15)
Mid adolescence is the time in which rebellion tends to push the hardest. During this stage of life we see that teens are striving to develop their identity. They often will work to differentiate themselves from the crowd and use opposition to gather power.
Boys begin puberty sometime between the ages of 9 and 14. Boys hit puberty about two years later than girls. However, Black and Hispanic boys tend to enter puberty a bit earlier than white boys. If your son starts showing signs of puberty before age 9, it's worth asking his pediatrician about these early changes.
Researchers and physicians hypothesized about possible causes for the increase in early puberty, such as increasing rates of obesity; greater exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in food, plastics, and personal-care products; and stressful or abusive home environments.