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Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction.It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a female, the testicles in a male.
In invertebrates and plants, hermaphrodites (which have both male and female reproductive organs either at the same time or during their life cycle) are common, and in many cases, the norm. In other varieties of multicellular life (e.g. the fungi division, Basidiomycota ), sexual characteristics can be much more complex, and may involve many ...
As puberty begins and sex hormone levels rise, differences appear, though some changes are similar in males and females. Male levels of testosterone directly induce the growth of the genitals, and indirectly (via dihydrotestosterone (DHT)) the prostate. Estradiol and other hormones cause breasts to develop in females.
The gradual growth in sex difference throughout a person's life is a product of various hormones. Testosterone is the major active hormone in male development while estrogen is the dominant female hormone. These hormones are not, however, limited to each sex. Both males and females have both testosterone and estrogen. [109]
These chemicals are not biologically active until puberty when sex steroids influence their activity. [5] The activity change during puberty suggests that humans communicate through odors. [4] Several axillary steroids have been described as possible human pheromones: androstadienol, androstadienone, androstenone, androstenol, and androsterone.
In response to the signals, the gonads produce hormones that stimulate libido and the growth, function, and transformation of the brain, bones, muscle, blood, skin, hair, breasts, and sex organs. Physical growth—height and weight—accelerates in the first half of puberty and is completed when an adult body has been developed. Until the ...
The study finds that despite fears of their over-medicalization, transgender adolescents are only very rarely prescribed hormones and puberty blockers.
[1] [2] This includes the embryological development of the primary male sex organs, and the development of male secondary sex characteristics at puberty. Androgens are synthesized in the testes, the ovaries, and the adrenal glands. Androgens increase in both males and females during puberty. [3] The major androgen in males is testosterone. [4]