Today you have learned about longitudinal bone growth. You learned also that the

Question

Today you have learned about longitudinal bone growth.
You learned also that the growth of bones stops at sexual maturation, as the sex hormones cause the closure of the epiphyseal plates.
Here are 2 questions for you:

1. Knowing that girls stop growing (in height) by the time they finish high school, and boys keep growing until they are about 25, what does that tell you about the differences in their timeline of development? Explain your answer, using what you learned today.

2. A girl was born without ovaries (so she cannot produce sex hormones). How would you expect that to reflect on her height? Explain your answer.

Explanation / Answer

1. As we know, girls stop growing by the time they finish high school, and boys keep on growing until they are 25. This results in the short stature of girls(on an aveage) as compared to boys.But there noticable changes in the female and male body according to age.

For example, a female body is quite short as compared to males until adolescence. The growth spurt, which occurs at the age of 11 for females causes great increase in growth. Males have their adolescent spurt at the age of 16, causes great height spurt and growth of males overtake the female growth by a large factor.

Apart from that there is considerable difference in the meaning of growth in the females and males .For example, at puberty the males develop broader shoulders but females develop broader hips. In males there is growth of mucsle mass and long bones , in females , there is the development of mammary glands and fat depositionin the body, with very less muscle and weight growth.

So we can conclude that females undergoes large changes in a very short period of time, while males undergoes the growth over a longer period of time.

2. The hormones that plays role in the human development is the pitituary growth hormone, thyroid hormone , and the sex hormones(testesterone and estrogens).

Sex hormone of females , estrogen which is secreted by the ovaries, causes growth of female external characters, such as growth of mammary glands, external genitalia and uterus. It also causes the growth of bones of hips resulting in the widening of hips.

The height increase during the adolescent apurt is causesd by testesterone like hormones, androgens in both males and females , it is secreted by the adrenal glands.

So , absence of ovaries will affect external female characterstics ,like the development of breasts, external genitalia, widening of hips , but will have little or no effect on the height of the female.

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