No, you're not just imagining it: Your hips really do get wider as you get older, according to a new study. Even though most people stop growing in height by the time they hit age 20, researchers have found evidence that the hip bones can keep growing even as people enter their 70s.
With the onset of puberty, the male pelvis remains on the same developmental trajectory, while the female pelvis develops in an entirely new direction, becoming wider and reaching its full width around the age of 25-30 years. From the age of 40 onward, the female pelvis then begins to narrow again.
Height for most people caps at about age 20, but the hips continue to expand.
When a female body gives birth, the hip bones themselves will widen to allow a baby to pass through. In many cases, the hips will go back to their original size afterward, but sometimes the hips will remain widened permanently. Age. As we get older, our hips slightly widen naturally.
But researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine found that while people don't grow taller after age 20, they do grow wider—well into their 70s. On average, the pelvic width of the oldest people in the study was nearly 2.5 cm larger than the youngest patients.
The size of your pelvis changes according to your age, getting wider from puberty to the age of 25 to 30, then shrinking gradually from the age of 40 on.
A Word From Verywell Family
You can rest assured that your widening hips, in most cases, will return back to their pre-pregnancy state, usually by 12 weeks postpartum. If you are experiencing pelvic pain or other hip-related issues, you should bring these up with your healthcare provider promptly.
Widening of the hip bones occurs as part of the female pubertal process, and sex hormones in females (estrogens) cause a widening of the pelvis as a part of sexual differentiation. Hence females generally have wider hips, permitting childbirth.
It might be surprising to see your body changing in so many ways, but that's what it's designed to do. Hips get wider to prepare your body for the future so it's capable of carrying and delivering a baby. And as your hips widen, it may cause your stomach to get a little flatter (although it doesn't always).
Despite it all, not every change you'll face in your mid-twenties is negative. Whether you've been rocking curves since puberty or have noticed more curves as of late, the body will likely go through some visible changes around this age–and yes, that's a good thing.
Due to metabolic and hormonal changes, some women experience increased body fat, making them naturally curvier.
Summary: A new study has found evidence that, even though you're not getting taller anymore, the pelvis ("hipbones") does continue to widen as people advance in age from 20 years to 79 years. By the age of 20, most people have reached skeletal maturity and do not grow any taller.
Puberty usually starts when you're between 9 and 13 years old. But it can start earlier or later. Thanks to hormones like estrogen, you'll notice changes like your breasts starting to grow and new curves forming on your body. You might notice that you start to get taller, and eventually you'll get your period.
YES! As we get older, we may get less active and find ourselves sitting more causing more hip stiffness. That doesn't mean we have to stop doing things we enjoy or can't improve the quality of our lives. We tend to lose flexibility and strength because we have stopped needing those things in a sedentary lifestyle.
A sedentary lifestyle, specifically a lack of consistent muscle-building workouts like lower-body strength training or plyometrics, can cause your gluteal muscles to be underdeveloped, leading to a flat butt over time.
Generally, hip measurements of 36 inches or less are considered skinny body types, whereas curvy ones have usually 37 or more (inches). Similarly, skinny women have bust measurements of 34 or less, but that may also be true some curvy body shapes (see below).
Pear Shape. The main characteristic of Pear shape are: A defined waist. Larger hips and thighs.
But the main reason for girls' hips to grow after marriage is their physical relationship. When all girls have sexual relations with their husbands after marriage, it causes hormonal changes in their body. It also affects other organs like their waist and hips. After marriage, women's hips gradually begin to grow.
The idea here is that your waist should be smaller than your hips. If your waist is bigger than your hips, than you may have too much fat concentrated around the middle part of your body - something known as "intra-abdominal obesity".
Several women say that they feel like their hips got wider, but it's actually their pelvis bone structure that has changed, Jessica Shepherd, M.D., an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology and director of Minimally Invasive Gynecology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, ...
Let's bust this myth. There are no such things as birthing hips. All hips belonging to birthing people are birthing hips in the sense that they will be present during a birth, but your hip width does not determine your ability to birth or the manner in which you birth.
Your body shape begins to change around age 30. 5 These changes occur because of a decline in muscle mass and an increase in body fat.