Boys reaching puberty a year earlier than their fathers--study

The study confirmed that young boys today are hitting maturity quite earlier than their fathers did.

It condemns the popular belief that the trend of reaching puberty earlier is confined only to girls.

"Studies done several decades ago in the same population reported that a leap forward in sexual development occurs at ages 13 through 16," said Fnu Deepinder, who led the study, in an email to Reuters Health.

"However, our study indicated that this spurt takes place between 12 and 15 years old," he added.

The study
In a bid to investigate the trend of early puberty in youngsters, the researchers looked at 6,200 healthy Bulgarian boys aged between 1 and 19 years.

The study was conducted in comparison to a similar 1970s study.

Factors like height, weight and testicular volume, as well as the length and circumference of penises of the participants were recorded.

The study implications
The study found that the participant’s testicles did not grow to a significant size until they were 11 years old.

However, their penises grew right from their birth to sexual maturity starting with a length of 5 cm and acquiring an average length of nearly 9.5 centimeters when they were 19.

Both the parts grew most rapidly between ages 12 to 16.

When compared with the previous study, boys of the same age in earlier study were found to have smaller genitalia.

However, the size differences between the generations vanished when the boys were 17 years old.

Genetic, environmental, nutritional, and educational factors are some of the potential factors leading to the rising trend of early puberty, the researchers reported.

Interestingly, the penises of urban boys were slightly smaller than their rural counterparts.

Pubic hair development, voice changes, enlargement of the testicles, thinning and reddening of the scrotum and size of the genitals are some of the early signs of puberty in boys, the researchers revealed.

Puberty has been known to alter skeletal, muscular, reproductive and nearly all other bodily systems of youngsters.

The findings have been reported in the 'Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.'