Question:
I’m 15 and 5’1. My father’s like 5’4″ and mum’s 5’0″. My doctor says I’m in tanner stage 3 (based on testicular volume; 7-10 ml). The scale on the website, it says stage 4.1. I’m 4 inches erect and ironically, when flaccid it literally looks like a kid’s. My main confusion is with Tanner Stages. My pubic hair looks like stage 5, and it’s consistent with a beard, which usually happens in stage 5. But the calculator says I’m in stage 4 and my doctor says I’m in stage 3. Is it possible to like have more pubic hair? Or I’m just assessing it wrong?
Please clear these confusions up. Thank you.
Answer:
Please understand that I can’t see you, so I do not know if you are assessing yourself too high or not. You also didn’t mention what you answered for the various questions, though I’m guessing you gave yourself the highest level answers for your pubic hair.
The various sets of changes are only loosely linked. For instance, the order of changes for the pubic hair follows a fairly consistent and distinct order, but it can be ahead of or behind the changes for the genitals or your bones. Usually, the out-of-sync changes are just slightly ahead or behind the other changes, but the calculator would definitely be confused if one set of changes is far ahead of the other changes.