Does Your Height Increase After Puberty?

hipsThe answer to this is no. Right up until puberty, everyone grows at a slow rate. Then, when puberty hits, every teen has a growth spurt. The timing of this is late in puberty. So, girls will start developing breasts and pubic hair before this growth spurt hits. Guys will notice that their penis gets larger and they start growing pubic hair before their growth spurt. However, once puberty is done, growth is done, too. For girls, this is usually at the age of 14 (give or take), and for guys, this is usually at the age of 15 or so. Teens who develop later may continue growing during their late teen years, though.

As a health care provider who takes care of adolescents, I get asked a lot about whether taking growth hormone will make you grow taller. It is true that some teens with certain medical problems that keep them from growing need growth hormone injections. This is a really a small number of teens, though, and growth hormone has to be given to them long before they hit their growth spurt to make them taller. Because all growth stops once puberty is done, giving growth hormone after someone has already had their growth spurt doesn’t have any effect.