Last updated on September 7, 2023
Question:
I know that one of the first signs of puberty is an ejaculation, as well as the penis and testicles getting bigger. I only really started having pubic hair and had an ejaculation a few months after turning 14 years old (it happened during the summer). Then from autumn to spring, I grew from around 171-172 cm to 178-180 cm. I am currently 15 years and 3 months old and around 182-183 cm in height. My current Tanner stage is 3.5-3.6. My predicted adult height is 193 cm.
I heard that the first growth spurt starts around a year after puberty begins, so I actually hit puberty at 13 rather than 14. However, pubic hair usually appears halfway in tanner stage 2, which is 11 years old. Do I have faster growth and will likely finish puberty faster than my peers despite hitting it later than all of them, or did I actually just hit puberty at 13 yet somehow didn’t have pubic hair until 14?
Answer:
Let’s clarify the terms because they are commonly confused. Puberty is the point in time when you begin to change from a child into an adult. Technically, puberty is the point in time when your hormones rise in your blood to start the series of changes, but since we don’t know when the hormone rises without constantly taking blood samples, we call “puberty” the point in time when the first external signs of changes are seeable. For boys, that first external sign is the enlarging of the testicles, which makes the scrotum look a bit swollen. Most boys miss that first sign. They usually don’t realize that puberty has already come until they get pubic hair or have an ejaculation, though, in reality, puberty happened a year before.
You noticed pubic hair and started having ejaculation at 14; thus, I would conclude that you actually started puberty around 12 and a half or 13. You’ve since hit your growth spurt in this last year — growing at a rate of about 10 cm (4 inches) per year. You’ll probably continue growing at a faster rate and somewhere around the age of 16, you’ll slow down to your childhood rate. By the time you’re 18, your growth in height will stop altogether.
Question:
Okay. Thank you very much.
I am wondering if my penis will grow at least 0.5-1 inch more at my stage of puberty.
Answer:
The penis grows in length during stage 3, which you are still in, so it is highly likely that it will grow longer. I can’t predict how much longer. It is based on your genetics, which is individualized.
Question:
Is it most likely that I got most of my father’s genes? He’s 195 cm, and his family side is pretty tall overall (His mother and father were both around 170cm-180cm), his brother (my uncle) is around 6’2-6’3, but my mom is 160 cm and generally has a shorter family. I’m 182-183 cm while my fully-grown brothers are 180 cm and 183 cm.
Answer:
Everyone gets half of their father’s genes and half of their mother’s genes. But the mixture that you get will influence your final height. In any family, the boys tend to be a minimum of the average of the two parents’ heights. But the maximum can be up to 13 cm taller than that average. Where you fall in that range depends on what mix of genes you get from your parents.
Response:
Interesting. Thank you a lot.