At around the age of 11 or 12 (or a few years earlier or later), your body will start doing ‘puberty things’. Your body will take the shape of a young man. You’ll put on weight on your shoulders and chest and your Adam’s apple may also become more pronounced.
Testosterone and changes to your body
Other changes include increased activity in the oil and sweat glands in your skin which can cause pimples and oily hair. The hormone testosterone triggers many of the changes inside and out, including your reproductive organs so you can father a child later in life.
External changes
The penis, testes and scrotum will increase in size and the scrotum sac may get redder or darker in colour and become more wrinkly. Pubic hair will appear too. You’ll also notice that one testis hangs lower than the other, usually the left or larger one. This is so they do not rub against each other as you walk.
Changes taking place inside your body
During puberty, testosterone causes changes that prepare your body for your first ejaculation. The hormone sends messages to your testes to start producing sperm and semen, the white sticky fluid that spurts out of your penis when you climax (ejaculate).
Even though there may be millions of sperm each time you ejaculate, they are so small that you can only see them under a microscope. Millions of sperm are produced in your testes every day.
When you are about to ejaculate, the semen with the sperm travel along the penis to spurt out via the opening in the head of your penis. This is the same way that urine goes from your bladder, but when you ejaculate, the urethra is closed off, so no urine ever mixes with the semen.
Changes to how you talk and think
Testosterone causes your voice to become deeper. This does not happen overnight, and at times your voice may ‘crack’ and sound squeaky all of a sudden. The common way this change is described is as ‘your voice breaking’.
Hormones also affect the emotions. Sometimes you might feel moody and unfriendly for no particular reason; at other times you’ll feel on top of the world. The way you think about things can also be affected by hormones. This is to be expected as your body adjusts to all the changes taking place. Remember that most of your friends will be experiencing these thoughts and feelings as they go through puberty too.
