Male puberty

The boy's puberty actually varies from person to person. Normally, teenage boys will reach puberty at the age of 10-13 years. However, the problem of early or late puberty is not a new phenomenon anymore. Some boys may experience one of these. So, will male puberty during adolescence affect his fertility in adulthood?

What affects a child's puberty?

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 marked by the growth of fine hair in several parts of the body (around the penis, armpits, face, and arms and legs), the appearance of pimples, changes in voice that become more bass, to growth in height and rapid posture. .

At the same time, the testicles and penis also grow. During puberty, the testes will start to produce a sex hormone called testosterone as well as produce sperm. Because of this production of sex hormones, teenage boys who are going through puberty will experience their first wet dreams.

Many factors influence the age at which male puberty starts, including genetics, lifestyle, and environment. Does late or not a teenager enters puberty will affect his fertility?

Early puberty and its effects on male fertility

One of the effects of early puberty is a shorter height than peers, who experience normal puberty. Initially, he will grow taller faster, but as an adult he will have a height that is below normal for individuals his age.

One more issue that may 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 inferior and less confident about their physical changes that their peers have not (yet) experienced.

In addition, children who puberty too early are also prone to problems with behavior changes due to mood changes, and tend to get angry more quickly. Boys can tend to be aggressive and have sex drives that are not age appropriate. These mood changes also increase the risk of teenage boys experiencing depression.

How about fertility? There aren't many studies out there specifically looking at the impact of early puberty on the quality of male fertility as an adult. However, a number of studies have reported that early puberty can lead to a risk of decreasing the quality of semen. Even so, watery semen does not mean you are infertile.

One thing that needs to be paid more attention to as a result of early puberty is the growth of certain tumors in the testicles that may be at risk of developing cancer. Testicular cancer and its treatment can affect hormone levels and it can also affect a man's ability to have children after treatment.

Late puberty in men, and its effect on fertility

Just like precocious puberty, boys who have puberty late can experience hormonal imbalances that affect their growth and development. A recent Danish study found that men's late puberty can negatively impact their fertility as an adult.

The study found that adolescent boys whose puberty late puberty were at risk of having smaller testes than the average teenager. The testes are a sperm-producing factory, so a decrease in testicular volume can more or less affect the amount of sperm production.

Normally, the testes are capable of producing 200 million sperm every day. The low sperm count each time you ejaculate is a risk factor for male infertility.

Late puberty can also affect the shape of a man's sperm, especially on the shape of the sperm head. Men with sperm deformities tend to have more difficulty having children. The reason is, the head of the sperm stores important enzymes that help the process of fertilizing an egg. The sperm head also contains DNA information that will be passed on to the next offspring.

Why is that?

Until now, the mechanism of the effect of male puberty on fertility is not known with certainty. What is clear, puberty that is too early or late can affect the production of sex hormones and growth, which can affect the development of children.

Temporary allegations suggest that late puberty causes testosterone to fail to reach peak levels. Levels of this male sex hormone were found to be 9% lower in men who experienced late puberty than other adolescents who entered puberty at a normal age.

When it comes to male fertility, we also have to think about the quality of the sperm which is determined by these three important factors: sperm count, shape, and the agility of the sperm. If there is only one sperm abnormality from these three factors, then the risk of a man being infertile can increase.