Last updated on July 20, 2026
Question:
Hello,
I have a question regarding Tanner staging.
Last October, I got a Tanner G5P5 from a doctor, yet I still hadn’t developed barely any vellus hair on my face. I only started developing darker vellus hair on my upper lip around the time of my appointment, maybe a month before. However, I read that vellus hair is supposed to develop during Tanner 4 and be much more pronounced by Tanner 5. Is that true?
And on your website, it also states that Tanner 5 is reached when height growth stops, but I had grown 3.3 cm over the 8 months before the appointment. I even grew 1.9 cm during the 6 months after the appointment.
So this has me confused, am I in Tanner 5 or not?
Answer:
Since you’ve grown approximately 5.3 cm (2 inches) in the last year, you obviously have not reached stage 5. At that rate of growth, I would guess that you are in early stage 4. However, I can’t see you, so I can’t give you an accurate assessment. What do you get when you fill out the Tanner Stage Calculator for Boys?
I have no way to determine why the doctor made a mistake. It could be a typo when entering the information on your chart. It might be that the doctor didn’t examine your genitals and just made an estimate.
Question:
Hi,
My current growth rate is 3.8 cm per year (I will grow about 2 cm more before my plates fuse), and according to the test, I’m in Tanner stage 4.8.
I had a new appointment last May, and this time, the doctor used an orchidometer and confirmed G5P5, which is much more believable since at that point, my puberty had lasted a little over 4 years already. Also, my skeletal age was 16.8.
Answer:
The bone age test is considered the most accurate. At a bone age of 16.8, most of your plates have fused, though some in your spine may still be open enough to give you a bit more growth in height. The G5P5 rating means your doctor believes your genitals and pubic hair have fully developed. Since there are only 5 Tanner Stages, there is a small amount of rounding error in the estimates. The Tanner Stage Calculator also has some rounding error because it is based on personal observations. I aim for it to be within 0.3 of your actual development. Therefore, all the tests give pretty much the same result: you are very close to the end of your growth in height.
Question:
Yes, I have no doubt that I am currently in Tanner 5 or very close to it. But I do doubt that I had reached it already last October. I would say I was in the latter half of Tanner 4 at that time. My bone age at that time was probably around 15.8–16.2. It is hard to estimate. Skeletal age progresses faster than chronological age. For example, when I was 16 y 2 m old, my bone age was 12.2, and at 17 y 2 mo, it was 14.0.
Answer:
The bone age scale is done by averaging many boys and then comparing you to that composite. Thus, at age 16 and 2 months, your bone structure was similar to the average of boys who were just over 12 years old. When you were 17 and 2 months old, your bones developed and were now comparable to the average of boys who were 14 years old. Since it is comparing averages, it isn’t a straight 1-to-1 correspondence to chronological age.
Response:
Yes, I have delayed puberty, so that’s why it’s behind my chronological age.