Ch-Ch-ChChanges!
Quiz Show
Puberty Edition
Boys and girls will
both develop
muscle tissue
during puberty.
FALSE
Boys develop more muscle and the bones get heavier during puberty. This is when the
features become more obviously male, like wider shoulders and jaws.
Only boys produce
testosterone.
FALSE
Testosterone, which plays an important role in male sexual
development, is produced mainly by the testes in boys and
in much smaller amounts by the ovaries in girls.
Testosterone is also produced by the adrenal glands in both
girls and boys.
Estrogen, the female sex hormone, is also produced in
small amounts in boys.
Boys and girls both
develop broader
shoulders during puberty.
FALSE
Widening of the shoulders occurs as part of the male
puberty process. Expansion of the ribcage is caused by the
effects of testosterone during puberty. Hence males
generally have broad shoulders and expanded chests,
allowing them to inhale more air to supply their muscles with
oxygen.
A boy’s breasts can get
bigger and become sore
during puberty.
TRUE
Enlarged or swollen breasts are seen quite frequently in teenage
boys. This is called "pre-pubertal gynecomastia". As a boy enters
puberty, many hormones are made that act to develop the secondary
sex characteristics such as, pubic hair, genital growth and deeper
voice. Some of these hormones originate from and thus resemble
female hormones. In some boys the levels are so high, the breast
gets stimulated to grow by the female type of hormones. Because
the breast tissue is stimulated, the breast may be tender or painful.
The size of a boy’s penis
determines how
masculine he is.
FALSE
A male’s concerns about penis size are fueled by cultural
messages equating penis size with masculinity. There is
no truth to this myth.
Boys are born
with testicles
inside their
bodies rather
than outside.
TRUE
As you were developing in your mother's womb, your testicles formed inside your
abdominal cavity. The descent might take a few weeks to complete, but normally by twelve
weeks after birth they drop through holes in the abdomen into your scrotum. During
childhood, a boy's testicles can move back up into the abdominal wall, but they descend
again. When puberty is reached, the testicles grow and no longer are able to fit into the
opening of the abdomen.
The “shrinking” of the
testicles is not a cause for
concern.
TRUE
When the body gets cold, the “shrinking” of the
testicles is the male’s way of regulating the
temperature of his testicles in order to continue to
produce sperm.
Wet dreams, or nocturnal
emissions, occur only when
a male has a sexy dream.
FALSE
A wet dream is when you ejaculate while you're asleep.
A dream does not have to be about anything sexual in
order to have a nocturnal emission. Semen can build up
inside your body and one way that semen gets released is
with a wet dream.
Men will continue to make
sperm until they die.
TRUE
In general, men keep producing sperm from puberty right
on until they die. As they get older the quality and quantity
may decline, but sperm will continue to be produced,
unless they suffer damage to their testes through either
disease or injury.
An erection occurs when the
blood vessels in the penis fill
with an extra supply of blood.
TRUE
An erection is a state when two tubular structures in the
penis become engorged with rapid flowing blood. Since
more blood is entering than exiting the penis, it has to
make more room for the blood so it stretches out, making
the penis longer and stiffer.
Masturbating can lead to
health concerns with the
penis.
FALSE
Masturbation is a natural and harmless expression of
sexuality for both men and women. It does not cause
any physical injury or harm to the body, and can be
performed in moderation throughout a person's
lifetime as a part of normal sexual behavior.
Hormones have
no effect on a
boy's emotions.
FALSE
Boys and girls may experience sudden changes in feelings during puberty. Feelings can
swing backwards and forwards and you may feel like laughing at one moment and crying
the next. Boys particularly can experience strong feelings of anger. Sudden mood changes
are partly caused by the increasing amount of hormones in the body.
A girl's breasts may grow
unevenly, one slightly bigger
than the other.
TRUE
When girls begin puberty, their breasts begin to develop starting with
just a little swelling under the nipple. This is known as breast
budding. They may notice that one of their breasts starts developing
before the other or that one is growing more quickly. Many times
this difference in breast size evens out once a girl is older, usually by
age 20. But it's also perfectly normal for women's breasts to remain
different sizes even when they're fully developed.
A girl's body develops
more fatty tissue during
puberty than a boy's.
TRUE
Females naturally have more body fat than men, and are
supposed to. It's primarily for bearing and feeding babies.
Gaining some weight is part of developing into a woman, and
it's unhealthy for girls to go on a diet to try to stop this
normal weight gain.
A girl's hips get wider
during puberty to help
support a growing baby
during pregnancy.
TRUE
As part of the maturing process, the body needs
to prepare to bear children.
After puberty, the vagina
is wet most of the time
TRUE
About 6 months to 1 year before a girl gets her first period, her body may start to produce vaginal
discharge. This is normal and is caused by the changing level of hormones in the body, resulting in
an increase in secretions in the vagina. This discharge helps keep the vagina healthy. Normal
vaginal fluids vary in texture from thin and slightly sticky to thick and gooey. They also vary in
color, ranging from clear to white or off-white. The amount of discharge can vary depending
upon a girl's menstrual cycle. For example, fluids tend to be a bit heavier around the time a girl
ovulates, which is when an egg is released from the ovary and moves into the fallopian tube.
A girl's period,
or menstruation,
lasts an average
of 5 days.
TRUE
However, that is an average. How long a girl's period lasts varies. It's perfectly normal for
some girls to have their first period for just 2 or 3 days. The amount of blood (also called
"menstrual fluid") that a girl has during her period also varies. Some girls will have a very light
flow of blood the first couple of times they get their period and others may have what seems
like much more. Lots of girls expect their blood to be bright red during their periods. It's
completely normal for menstrual blood to be brownish.
Once a girl starts her
period, she will get one
every 28 days.
FALSE
Doctors often talk about a girl's monthly cycle — the number of
days from the start of her period to the start of the next one —
in terms of a 28-day cycle. Women's cycle lengths vary — some
have a 24-day cycle, some have a 34-day cycle. And a girl may
notice that her cycles are different lengths each month —
especially for the few years after she first starts getting her period.
A girl needs to
clean inside her vagina
every month.
FALSE
The vagina is a self-cleaning organ. Each day, the vagina produces some discharge that helps
cleanse it by flushing out any harmful dirt or bacteria. Every girl has her own scent and every
girl has vaginal discharge, which she might notice on her underwear or on toilet paper. On
some days, the discharge is white and pasty. On the days of the month when a girl is
ovulating, it may be clear and stringy, kind of like egg white. And on a few days each month,
there may not be any discharge at all.
It is normal for sexual
desires to develop in girls
during puberty.
TRUE
During the teen years, sexual feelings are awakened in
new ways in both guys and girls because of the hormonal
and physical changes of puberty. These changes involve
both the body and the mind, and teens may wonder
about new — and often intense — sexual feelings.
Take the WebMD Challenge
For more information about changes during
puberty, check out Teen Health at WebMD.

Click here to take the “Teen Guys Quiz: Test
Your Puberty IQ”.

Click here to the “Teen Girls Quiz: What’s Going
On Down There?”