Last updated on June 3, 2024
Question:
Hello,
I would like your opinion on my growth patterns and future predictions. In the past three months, I have felt like puberty has affected me more than ever. I easily developed some acne, voice breaks, an increase in testicle size to 5 mL, and an increase in testosterone levels. The only thing that doesn’t make sense is my height. It should be starting to speed up, right?
12: 145cm
13: 150cm
14: 155cm
15: 158cm
15.75: 160cm
My growth is slowing down. I have actually only grown 1.1 cm in the past 5 months. I thought my growth should be starting to speed up when, in actual fact, it is slowing down. This worries me that it is slowing down to stop permanently. And this doesn’t make sense as I’ve never had a growth spurt. As you can see, I was growing at normal childhood rates up until about 15, I have been growing slowly for the past year, and it’s actually been slowing down. Why do you think this is?
Answer:
I can’t see you, so I’m left to make guesses. Your acne and voice breaking indicate that you’re in stage 4. Your growth is about childhood rates, and your testicle size is for stage 2 of development. Thus, I’m going to guess that you’re in stage 2. You would be slowing down a bit as your body prepares to make a growth spurt, which should come in the next year or so.
Question:
Thank you.
So you are indicating that there is actually a plateau in height before it speeds up?
Answer:
It is more that there can be a plateau due to energy being spent on internal changes that are needed to support a larger body before developing the larger body. I can’t say with any certainty that is what you experiencing. As I mentioned before, you listed points of development that seem to be at odds. What I gave you was my best guess at what could be happening that would explain the discord.