I read in a magazine that after a girl has had her period she only grows less than one more inch. Is this true?
No. The statement is an oversimplification of a complicated process and is also inaccurate.
I assume the point the magazine was trying to make is that girls grow the fastest shortly before menstruation starts. This is true. This time of rapid growth is called the growth spurt. It usually occurs around age twelve for girls, although it can start before ten or even after thirteen. During this year a girl may grow taller by 2 to 4 in (6 to 11 cm). After menstruation starts, on average a bit after twelve, the average girl will grow only about 1 in (3 cm) by fourteen and would have achieved most of her adult height by age sixteen.
The growth spurt is stimulated by increased amounts of growth hormone from the pituitary gland and by increased levels of androgens, hormones we usually think of as being male, although they are responsible for many of the changes both boys and girls experience during adolescence.
The growth spurt doesn’t affect all parts of the body equally or at the same time. For example, most of the height increase is caused by rapid lengthening of the trunk rather than the legs. The legs usually grow fastest before the width of the hips and chest begins to increase. Shoulders get wider even later. Eventually there are growth spurts in head circumference, size of the internal organs (including heart, lungs, and reproductive organs), bones, muscles, and glands such as the thyroid and pituitary.
Tags: Adolescence, breast buds, growth spurt, physical change, slow growth, teen body, teenager body
