Puberty is a stage of a person’s life where he or she experienced many changes especially in his/ her body. Puberty can start anywhere between the ages of 8-13 years (and sometimes earlier or later) but often the first changes happen around 10 or 11 years.
The major changes are brought by the orders from your brain. Two parts of the brain are responsible for this; they are the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. At this stage, they start making a lot more of some hormones including growth hormone, LH (lute-in-ising hormone) and FSH (follicle stimulating hormone). These hormones act on other parts of your body to make the changes happen.
Both boys and girls have these hormones but they act on different parts of their bodies.
| For boys | The LH and FSH work on their testes and adrenal glands (glands next to the kidneys) to make androgens (sex hormones) such as testosterone. They also work on the testes so that they start to make sperm. |
| For girls | These hormones work on their ovaries (where all the eggs that they will ever have, are stored since before they were born), as well as on their adrenal glands, so that they make more of the female sex hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. |
Both boys and girls have some of all of these hormones but boys have more androgens and girls have more estrogens, and the different levels of these hormones make the differences in their bodies.
What are the changes to your body?
Other body changes depend on whether you are a boy or a girl.
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