All issues > Volume 33(7); 1990

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1990;33(7):989-998. Published online July 31, 1990.

Study on Pubertal Changes in Adolescent Girls.

Sang Mi Ha¹, Ki Soo Pai¹, Un Jun Hyoung¹, Duk Hi Kim¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Yonsei University, College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Received: February 23, 1990;  Accepted: April 24, 1990.

Abstract

Puberty is the period of transition from childhood to adulthood whereby rapid growth takes place psychologically and physically, especially sexual maturation. Puberty usually starts at 10 to 12 years and ends at 17 to 19 years. However due to recent improvement in general hygiene, nutrition and standard of living, puberty comes at an earlier age. Three thousand nine hundred and ninety seven girls from 3 middle schools were examined for sexual maturation and the following results were obtained: 1) There was a high correlation between the Tanner staging done by the girl herself and the medical personnel. 2) When a medical personnel examined the girls for Tanner staging, 37.4% of girls had breast stage 3 and 30.6% had pubic hair stage 2. 3) The distribution of Tanner staging according to grades were as follows. In the 1st grade, breast stage 3 was 38.6% and stage 2 36.6%, pubic hair stage was 80.5% for stage 1 and 2. In the 2nd grade, breast stage 3 was most frequent with 47.1% and pubic hair stages were 34.3% for stage 2 and 32.6% for stage 3. In the 3rd grade, breast stage was most frequent with 41.7% in stage 4 with pubic hair stage being 30.9% and 30.4% for stage 3 and 4 respectively. 4) The distribution of Tanner staging according to age were as follows. For 12 year olds, breast stage 3 was most frequent with 38.1% and pubic hair stage 2 and 1 were most frequent with 41.3% and 40.0% respectively. For 13 year olds, breast stage 3 was most frequent with 44.0%, pubic hair stage 2 was most frequent with 35.4%, and in the 14 year olds, breast stage 4 was 34.9% with stage 3 being 33.5% and pubic hair stage 3 was most frequent 34.8%. In the 15 year olds, breast stage 3 was most frequent with 48.2% and pubic hair stage 3 and 4 were 35.2% each. 5) The average age for each Tanner staging were 13.04 years for breast stage 2, 13.56 years for stage 3,13.98 years for stage 4 and 14.40 years for stage 5. The average age for pubic hair stage 2 was 13.38 years, 13.92 years for stage 3, 14.28 years for stage 4 and 14.46 years for stage 5. 6) Breast development appeared about 4 months before pubic hair development and there was a high correlation between the two sexual developments. 7) There was a correlation between Tanner staging and menstruation, 51.6% of girls with breast stage 2, 88.5% of stage 3, 97.0% of stage 4 and 100.0% of stage 5, and 78.1% of girls with pubic hair stage 2, 95.8% of stage 3 and all girls with pubic hair stages 4 and 5 had menstruation. And 48.6% of girls in the first grade, 84.0% in the second grade and 95.5% in the third grade had menarche.

Keywords :Puberty, Pubertal changes