Biological Development in adolescent males

Biological development in adolescent males is the transitional stage of development that is between childhood and full adulthood, during this time span the person is biologically considered to be and adult but they are not psychologically and emotionally mature. The adolescent stage is taught to start somewhere around the age of 13 and finish somewhere around 24, but different individuals may enter into the adolescence stage earlier or later than others according to their biological makeup. The main focus of the adolescence stage is the maturation of an individuals reproductive organs, at this age a person is considered mature enough to successfully reproduce. Before puberty males and females produce similar amounts of the male hormones (androgens) and female hormones (estrogen). When boys reach puberty the brain stimulates the pituitary glands in males to initiate hormone production in the adrenal and reproductive glands, this means that from the start of puberty males have a higher level of androgens than girls. The higher levels of androgens increase the growth rate of males significantly, bodily tissue such as muscles begin to develop along with the males reproductive organs. In addition one of the most visible signs that a boy has entered the puberty stage is a spurt in the rate of physical growth, during this time males grow at a faster rate than any other time since they were babies. During the growth spurt a boy may be able to grow up to 9 inches taller during the 2 to 3 years of the growth spurt, again this varies between individuals. Even though adolescents continue to grow throughout puberty, they ultimately reach about 98 percent of their total adult height by the end of the pubescent stage. To add the male body experiences patterns of growth during puberty, this means that some parts of the body out grow others, for example: leg length reaches its peak first, followed 6 to 9 months later by trunk length. The shoulders and chest of males are the last part of the male body to reach their potential. Also the males head which has grown about 3 percent bigger since the age of 2, grows during the growth spurt, the skull becomes more dense, and within the skull the brain which attained 90 percent of its maximum weight by the age of 5 grows little during this period.

Furthermore changes in the physical size of males are naturally accompanied by changes in the structure of the males body. During puberty males obtain their distinguishable male features which are unique to the sex, which are wide shoulders, muscular neck, broader biceps etc. Boys also begin to lose body fat during this period which gives them the appearance of being more muscular than females. In comparison to females males appear to be stronger than females after puberty, after puberty males are significantly stronger than females. But before puberty males and females have no significant difference in terms of strength. When males have fully gone through puberty stage they are able to exercise for longer periods and exert more force than a female would that has a similar size. Males are able to do this because they have larger hearts and lungs which they obtained during the male growth spurt. This means that males have a higher blood pressure and a greater capacity to carry oxygen in the blood stream; this also enables males to have greater stamina than females. More importantly during puberty the male sex organs become enlarge and fully functional, the testes begin to produce sperm and the prostate begins to produce semen. In addition males gain the ability ejaculate the semen which contains sperm, the scrotum thickens, the penis increases in size and stops growing after two years of puberty. On average a year after the male penis begins to grow the male is able to ejaculate this usually occurs for the first time during wet dream. Also facial and underarm hair begins to appear about 4 years into puberty. Another significant change that males encounter during the adolescent stage is the deepening of the voice this is a gradual process which may also take years to be complete.