GIRLS AND PUBERTY: BREASTS

posted by admin in Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction

You may have heard all sorts of slang words used to refer to a girl’s breasts – ‘boobs’, ‘boobies’, ‘knockers’, ‘melons’, ‘tits’, ‘titties’ or whatever. Regardless of what you call them, you’ve probably noticed that they grow larger during puberty. Doctors have divided female breast development into the five stages.

Stage 1 is the childhood stage. The breasts have not yet begun to develop. Stage 2 is the beginning of breast development. A small, button-like mound, similar to the ones some boys develop, forms under each nipple. The breasts may be sore or tender or even painful, especially if they’re hit. The nipple gets larger and the areola gets wider. Both the nipple and areola get darker, and the button-like mound underneath causes them to swell and stand out from the chest more. Most girls reach Stage 2 about the age of 11.

In Stages 3 and 4 the breasts continue to get larger, rounder and fuller, and they stand out from the chest more. The average girl reaches Stage 3 when she’s about 12, and Stage 4 when she’s about 13. Girls stay in Stage 4 of breast development for a while, and most don’t reach Stage 5 until they are about 15. Of course, not all girls are average, so some will reach these stages when they’re a bit younger, and some when they’re a bit older. Stage 5 is the adult stage.

Just as the age at which a boy starts to go through the various stages of puberty doesn’t have anything to do with how quickly he goes through those stages, so the age at which a girl starts to go through pubic hair and breast development doesn’t have anything to do with how quickly she gets to the adult stage. Some early starters develop quickly and some slowly; the same thing happens with late starters. There are some girls who develop very quickly. Such girls may start Stage 2 and reach Stage 3 within six months. After another six months, they’ve reached Stage 5. Other girls take six or more years to go from Stage 2 to Stage 5. The typical girl takes about four years to go from Stage 2 to Stage 5.

The stages of pubic hair growth and breast development may go together, so that a girl is in, say, Stage 3 of breast development at the same time that she’s in Stage 3 of pubic hair development. However, these stages don’t always coincide. For example, a girl might be in Stage 3 of breast development but only Stage 2 of pubic hair growth. Or she might be in Stage 4 of breast development but only Stage 2 of pubic hair growth.

You may be curious as to why a girl’s breasts start to grow larger. Like the other changes that happen during puberty, this one occurs because the girl’s body is getting ready for a time in her life when she may decide to have children. In order to understand why a girl’s breasts grow, you have to know what’s happening inside her breasts. Each breast is made up of fifteen to

twenty-five separate compartments called lobes, although you can see only three of them in this drawing. The lobes are packed together like separate sections of an orange. They are surrounded by a cushion of fat tissue. Inside each lobe is a tree-like structure. The leaves of this tree are the alveoli. When a woman has a baby, milk is made inside these leaves. The milk travels from the leaves, through the branches and trunks of the tree (which are called milk ducts) to the nipple. When a mother breastfeeds, the baby sucks on the nipple and milk comes out.

As a girl begins puberty, she starts to develop milk ducts, alveoli and fat tissue to cushion these milk-producing organs. Her breasts aren’t yet ready to make milk and won’t be until after she has had a baby. But her body is getting ready for this possibility, which is why her breasts grow larger.

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