jc+and+nigirls+puberty

Girls Puberty Breast development __** The first physical sign of puberty in girls is usually a firm lump under the centre of the areola of one or both breasts, occurring at about 10 years of age. This is referred to as thelarche. By the widely used Tanner staging of puberty, this is stage 2 of breast development. Within six to 12 months, the swelling has clearly begun in both sides, softened, and can be felt and seen extending beyond the edges of the areola. This is stage 3 of breast development. By another 12 months. The breasts are approaching mature size and shape, with areola and papillae forming a secondary mound. In most young women, this mound disappears into the contour of the mature breast (stage 5), although there is so much variation in sizes and shapes of adult breasts that stages 4 and 5 are not always separately identifiable. Pubic hair is often the second noticeable change in puberty, usually within a few months of thelarche. It is referred to as pubarche. The pubic hairs are usually visible first along the labia. The first few hairs are described as Tanner stage 2. Stage 3 is usually reached within another 6–12 months, when the hairs are too many to count and appear on the pubic mound as well. By stage 4, the pubic hairs fill the "pubic triangle." Stage 5 is the spread of pubic hair to the thighs and sometimes as abdominal hair upward towards the navel. In about 15% of girls, the earliest pubic hair appears before breast development begins. The mucosal surface of the vagina also changes in response to increasing levels of estrogen, becoming thicker and duller pink in colour. Whitish secretions are a normal effect of estrogen as well. In the two years following thelarche, the uterus, ovaries, and the follicles in the ovaries increase in size. The ovaries usually contain small follicular cysts visible by ultrasound.
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 * __ Pubic hair __**
 * __ Vagina, uterus, ovaries __**

The first menstrual bleeding is referred to as menarche, and occurs about two years after thelarche. The average age of menarche in girls is 11.75 years. The time between menstrual periods (menses) is not always regular in the first two years after menarche. Ovulation is necessary for fertility, but may or may not accompany the earliest menses. In postmenarchal girls, about 80% of the cycles were anovulatory in the first year after menarche, 50% in the third year and 10% in the sixth year. Initiation of ovulation after menarche is not inevitable. A high amount of girls with continued irregularity in the menstrual cycle several years from menarche will continue to have prolonged irregularity and an ovulation, and are at higher risk for reduced fertility.
 * __ Menstruation and fertility __**

During this period, also in response to rising levels of estrogen, the lower half of the pelvis and thus hips widen (providing a larger birth canal). Fat tissue increases to a bigger percentage of the body composition than in males, especially in the typical female distribution of breasts, hips, buttocks, thighs, upper arms, and pubis. Progressive differences in fat distribution as well as sex differences in local skeletal growth contribute to the typical female body shape by the end of puberty. On average, at 10 years, girls have 6% more body fat than boys.
 * __ Body shape, fat distribution, and body composition __**

Rising levels of androgens can change the fatty acid composition of perspiration, resulting in a older body odour. This often precedes thelarche and pubarche by one or more years. Another androgen effect is increased secretion of oil (sebum) from the skin. This change increases the susceptibility to acne, a skin condition that is characteristic of puberty. Acne varies greatly in its severity.
 * __ Body odor and acne __**

Page was first completed by Jonathan Chow and then deleted and re-pasted by Nathan Illy.