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Human growthand development. 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.
Adolescence is a time of rapid cognitive development. [ 60 ] Piaget describes adolescence as the stage of life in which the individual's thoughts start taking more of an abstract form and the egocentric thoughts decrease, allowing the individual to think and reason in a wider perspective. [ 61 ]
Sexual orientation. The hormonal theory of sexuality holds that, just as exposure to certain hormones plays a role in fetal sex differentiation, such exposure also influences the sexual orientation that emerges later in the individual. Prenatal hormones may be seen as the primary determinant of adult sexual orientation, or a co-factor.
Precocious puberty. In medicine, precocious puberty is puberty occurring at an unusually early age. In most cases, the process is normal in every aspect except the unusually early age and simply represents a variation of normal development. There is early development of secondary sex characters and gametogenesis also starts earlier.
Gonadarche marks the beginning of puberty and it is the process in which gonads, or the primary reproductive organs, mature, following stimulation of gonadotropin hormone-releasing hormone (GnRH) release in the hypothalamus. [6] The release of GnRH triggers a release of hormones that activate the maturation of the ovary and testis. [3]
A hormone (from the Greek participle ὁρμῶν, "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs or tissues by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. [1] Hormones are required for the correct development of animals, plants and fungi. Due to the broad ...
Endocrine glands are ductless glands of the endocrine system that secrete their products, hormones, directly into the blood. The major glands of the endocrine system include the pineal gland, pituitary gland, pancreas, ovaries, testicles, thyroid gland, parathyroid gland, hypothalamus and adrenal glands. The hypothalamus and pituitary glands ...
Starting puberty significantly early — younger than age 8 in girls, 9 in boys — may have health effects lasting into adulthood, including higher risks of breast cancer, diabetes and heart disease.