alt-text: [yellow words saying “abolish cis puberty” next to a trans flag on a digital art wooden background]
How we treat puberty relates heavily to the systems of transphobia, sexism, and quite a lot of other hierarchies. How we treat it is a large component of systematic oppression and must be taken seriously.
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Despite being cis myself, I wish I had the option to delay my puberty a couple years. I stopped growing at 12, and am very short. Even another 2 inches would have only put me in the “almost average” category.
It’s something that doesn’t harm anyone and allows kids to choose another aspect of who they want to be as adults. I’m here for it.
Maybe I’m ignorant here, but how would delaying puberty do anything to help your height
Women/female bodies basically stop growing entirely about 2 years after menarche (first period), regardless when that hits. And once menarche hits they only grow another 1-3 inches, typically.
For some girls, myself included, menarche was around 9 years old (the historical normal age of menarche was around 15 years, as far as we can tell, and that age has been going down in modern history) meaning I didn’t really get a chance to grow before my body stopped being able to do so. I have not grown since I was 12. Had I been able to delay puberty by a few years, I may have ended up average instead of 2 standard deviations below average. On the plus side I can wear kids stuff sometimes.
Male puberty doesn’t work that way quite as dramatically, since puberty includes growth spurts through the early-mid 20s, but eventual adult height for men is still based on the height they are when the growth spurts start.
Here’s a really surface level resource that explains further about female puberty if you are interested in learning more.
https://www.familyeducation.com/teens/puberty-sex/do-girls-stop-growing-when-they-get-their-period
Huh, that’s actually super interesting. Thanks for the informative answer and the additional resources, I’ll do a bit more reading about the subject when I have time