Contents:
- Medical Video: Delayed puberty - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, pathology
- What affects puberty in children?
- Early puberty and its effects on male fertility
- Male puberty is late, and its effects on fertility
- Why is that?
Medical Video: Delayed puberty - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, pathology
Male puberty actually varies from one person to another. Normally, young men will reach puberty at the age of 10-13 years. However, the problem of early puberty or even being late is not a new phenomenon anymore. Some boys can experience one of them. So, will male puberty when adolescents affect their fertility as adults?
What affects puberty in children?
Puberty begins with brain activity that triggers various physical changes to prepare children for childbearing age. Simply put, puberty is a period of transition from children to adults.
In boys, puberty is characterized by fine hair growth in some parts of the body (around the penis, armpit, face, and arms and legs), the appearance of zits, changes in sound become more bass, to high growth and rapid posture .
At the same time, the testicles and penis also grow. During puberty, the testicles will start producing sex hormones called testosterone while producing sperm. Because of this sex hormone production, young men who are passing through puberty will experience their first wet dreams.
Many factors affect the age at which men start puberty, including genetic, lifestyle, and environment. Will the late or not a teenager entering puberty affect her fertility?
Early puberty and its effects on male fertility
One of the effects of early puberty is a shorter height than their peers, who experience normal puberty. Indeed, initially he will grow taller faster, but as an adult he has a height below normal for his age.
One more issue that might arise due to early puberty is emotional and social problems. Early puberty tends to make it difficult for children to adapt to their surroundings, because they feel insecure and less confident with their physical changes that their friends have not (yet) experienced.
In addition, puberty children who are too fast are also susceptible to behavior change problems due to mood changes, and tend to be angry faster. Boys can tend to be aggressive and have sex drive that is not in accordance with his age. This mood change also increases the risk of young men experiencing depression.
What about fertility? There are not many studies out there specifically looking at the effects of early puberty on the quality of male fertility as adults. However, a number of studies report that early puberty can risk causing a decrease in semen quality. Even so, runny semen does not mean you are infertile.
One thing that needs to be considered as the impact of early puberty is the growth of certain tumors in the testes which may risk developing cancer. Testicular cancer and its treatment can affect hormone levels and can also affect a man's ability to have children after treatment.
Male puberty is late, and its effects on fertility
Just like early puberty, boys who are late puberty can experience hormonal imbalances that affect their growth and development. A Danish study recently found that male puberty who is late can have a negative impact on fertility as adults.
The study found that teenage boys who were late at risk of puberty had smaller testicular sizes compared to the average normal teenager. The testis is a sperm-producing factory, so that a slight decrease in testicular volume can affect the amount of sperm production.
Normally, the testis can produce 200 million sperm every day. A small amount of sperm every time you ejaculate is one risk factor for male infertility.
Late puberty can also affect the shape of male sperm, especially in the form of a sperm head. Men with sperm deformities tend to be more difficult to have children. Because the head of the sperm stores important enzymes that function to help fertilize the egg. The sperm head also contains DNA information that will be passed on to the next breed.
Why is that?
Until now, the mechanism of the influence of male puberty on fertility is not yet known. What is clear, puberty that is too fast or too late can affect the production of sex hormones and growth, which can affect a child's growth and development.
Provisional estimates state that late puberty causes testosterone to fail to reach peak levels. This male sex hormone level was found to be 9% lower in men who experience late puberty than other teens who enter puberty at normal age.
When talking about male fertility, we also have to think about sperm quality which is determined by these three important factors: sperm count, shape and agility of sperm motion. If there is only one sperm abnormality from these three factors, then the risk of infertile men can increase.
