Have I stopped growing?

Question:

Hey,

I’ve been hoping for a change in height for a while and want to know if any significant change will happen to me.

I started puberty at around 14.5. My voice got deeper and cracked fast, also pubic hair started to grow. At 15 I could ejaculate and at 16.5 armpit hair started to come in. I’m 17 right now and barely have armpit hair although I feel my muscles are getting developed well. My Tanner scale says 4.0. My doctor said I could reach 170 by 20 but I want to hear your opinion.

I grew like this:

  • 14 – 151 cm
  • 15 – 156 cm
  • 16 – 161 cm
  • 17 – 165 cm

Have I stopped growing? If I haven’t, how much more could I gain?

Thanks a lot.

Answer:

Like many boys when they reach stage 4, you became concerned because your growth slowed down (or paused for a bit). Stage 3 is the time for fast growth and stage 4 is the time for slowing growth. Growth does not stop until you reach stage 5 and it typically takes two years to get through stage 4. Since you did not grow extremely fast during stage 3, the tendency is that you will not put on a lot of height in stage 4 either. Still, the typical male adds 3 to 8 cm during stage 4. I would expect you to be at the lower end of that scale. I would say that 170 cm will probably be a generous guess. I would guess somewhere between 168 and 169.