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Puberty & Adolescence
Puberty
Adolescence
Puberty
95% of human evolution (millions of years) was
spent as hunters and gatherers. But in the last 2000 years (a very
brief moment in evolutionary time), we've suddenly been forced
to live in a civilization among countless other humans, requiring
us to get along and act civilized. The only problem is that our
hormones have not had barely enough time to adapt to this sudden
change in our environment. Thus, our hormones remain practically
unchanged since 20,000 BC. Yes, we are still, with respect to hormones,
cavemen! Of course we can't act like cavemen. While hormones
rage inside us during puberty, we are forced to continue civilized
behavior as usual. This can lead to awkward situations when your
hormones are telling you to act one way, and your civilized intellect
is telling you to act a different way. So without further adieu,
lets make some sense of this period of your life called puberty.
Puberty
The time at which your parents become controlling and you go blind
from masturbation? Just Kidding! The period of time, during which
the secondary sex characteristics develop due to increased levels
of sexual hormones, resulting in the ability to reproduce. This
generally begins earlier in females, starting at ages 8 to 11. Males
usually don't start puberty until ages 10 to 12.
Male secondary sex characteristics
- Facial hair
- Chest hair
- Pubic hair
- Penis enlargement
Female secondary sex characteristics
- Breasts
- Pubic hair
- Areola
Your reproductive organs (present at birth)
fully develop by the end of puberty. Those visible on the outside
of the body are termed external genitalia, genital organs, or genitals,
while those contained within the body are termed internal genitalia
or internal reproductive organs.
Adolescence
The same period of time as puberty. However,
in addition to the physical changes that are taking place, the word
"adolescence" also refers to the many psychological and social changes
that define this period. For example, adolescence may include the
drive for independence, a search for personal identity, new relationships,
new responsibilities, new feelings or new experiences.
The awkwardness of adolescence
Due to good nutrition and the lower incidence of disease, our bodies
are able to start puberty a few years earlier than the bodies of
our ancestors. This subjects us to the overpowering effects of hormones
before our brain has developed the ability to cope with these effects.
Emotions can flare before we learn to control them. The drive for
sex, caused by hormones, interrupts our ability to hold a conversation,
leaving many boys tongue-tied in the presence of girls.
Growth spurts occurring during puberty don't
allow our brain the time it needs to adapt to a larger skeleton
or a larger voice box for men. This results in a lack of coordination
and the infamous voice crack.
Some effects of puberty are awkward because they evolved
for life as a caveman and might be less beneficial today. The sweat
glands secrete a substance that gave our ape ancestors an attractive
shiny coat and bewitching scent to impress the opposite sex. Today,
as we exist in dense populations, we have learned to value clean
hygiene. As a result, that old bewitching scent has lost its appeal,
and is now considered to be the infamous foul stench known as body
odor. Among our ancestors, women started menstruating later and
commonly became pregnant as soon as they were able to reproduce,
spending more of their fertile years pregnant or lactating. Thus
they didn't have to spend the majority of their teen years dealing
with PMS or menstruation. In today's society, we aren't
able to provide the financial security and parental stability that
a child needs until well into our 20's. This, along with an
earlier first period, can require some women to experience PMS for
nearly a decade before their first pregnancy.
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