Would you have put off puberty if you could?

It was a long time ago and there didn’t seem to be the peer-pressure that there is today, which I am sure adds to the child’s angst.
I think I just lumbered through it, wracked with shyness and sex-education was nil and gooseberry bushes were still being cited as one’s birth-place.
On reflection, I think it was ‘better’ then, without all the pressures, all the ‘celeb’ stuff which tends to influence teenagers.
As far as I remember the only vampire was Dracula, certainly no neck-coverings required as there might be with Twilight and that sort of thing!

Nope. I was all for growing up when I was younger, and puberty ended up going quite swimmingly for me. I have nothing against using these treatments for people who want them (especially in the case of transgendered children), but I wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with them myself.

I would have preferred to avoid it altogether, end result included.

Maybe 1–3 years, to allow my mind and body to mature at the same rate. When I went through puberty, I just had to muddle through. There was no sex ed at my school and my parents were unwilling to discuss the subject (other than to leave a copy of Preparing for Adolescence lying around the house when I was in my mid-teens and nearly finished with puberty). At least a year’s delay would have given me more time to mentally and emotionally prepare for the changes ahead.

I think the after efects of pubirty gave me much more fun things to do than the things I did prior to pubirty. College would have been stupid if my balls hadnt dropped.

I started at 9. I would’ve preferred to start at 15.

It had good timing for me. 12–13 was hard, and by 14 I felt I had sorted through many of my insecurities and was happy. But then I got sick at 14. It’s good I wasn’t dealing with both at the same time.

Humans actually go through puberty much too soon. Our society has changed so much, but our evolution has not caught up. Since no 13-year-old is ready to start reproducing, it is too bad that we can’t put it off until about age 25, or at least 21.

I dunno, I don’t believe in tampering with kids or peoples genetics. I was 13 when I began my cycles and my daughter was 11. I was a little surprised, thinking she might follow my developmental history and I do think it’s crappy for girls to start menstruating at very early ages, but on the other hand, I don’t think medical intervention with ones unique physiology is healthy. I just watched a documentary on birth control for wild horses and in tampering with the mares reproductive states via birth control drugs when the drugs wore off and they became pregnant their entire natural breeding cycle was screwed up with them giving birth in the late fall and winter which led to high foal mortality.

I really think we borrow even more trouble when we mess with mother nature 9 out of 10 times.

Oh, heavens! I would never suggest tampering with genetics, either. I just think it would be nice if we naturally went through it later. In the old days, when we had children an age 13 and were dead by 40, I guess it made sense. I am sure we will evolve to go through puberty later, but it is going to take hundreds of years.

No, but that’s only because I think I hit puberty at the right time. It was a pretty uneventful period, too. I thought I would feel incredibly different (aside from my body being relatively annoying.) The issue with transgender children is a really difficult one to tackle. If I were a parent of such a child, I would feel conflicted and weigh each decision very carefully.

I’ve long joked that women should be like dogs, 2 cycles a year, that’s more than enough. Nix the multiple births though, if the twice a year cycle meant we bring forth a litter of children then it’s best to leave things the way they are. lol

Mine was already delayed. Started around 14, my voice didn’t change until I was 16, etc. It was late enough. And that was really the only problem I had, being disappointed that it was taking me so long. 10 would’ve been a bit young, but no need to delay it even further, especially not during college. But I do understand the issue; teenagers develop sexual attractions/urges and yet they’re not supposed to do anything about until they’re at least 18 (or older if they’re religious), etc. Gee, I think that causes a few problems down the road…

I was a late bloomer. My voice didn’t change until I was 18 in my freshman year of college. While my choir teacher in high school loved my high tenor voice, it only added to the bullying I endured.

I would choose 15 to go through it, if I could.

Puberty hit me very suddenly, but at different ages for different stages. (Grew 6 inches over 6 months or so, went from being flat chested to a C cup in one year, (all that was by the time I was 12), then started my period full force at 13. I think I would have liked the process to be more gradual, overall, and that the physical development had hit a little later. Maybe around 15? Walking around in the body of a full grown woman at age 12/13 was pretty weird for me. Lots of inappropriate attention from men.

No. I guess I started on time and since I was a pretty rational teen, I didn’t suffer the angst that most seem to go through. The only problem I had was zits and it wasn’t that bad.

My body put off puberty as long as it could anyway, I didn’t even start it til I was about 15. Now at 45 here I am voluntarily going through another one! It doesn’t suck so much this time though.

@augustlan Hugs. Simply, hugs.

Puberty wasn’t so bad for me so no, I wouldn’t have put it off. I just wish someone would have talked to me about what the hell was going on with my body.

Mine was late and I was more than ready for it. I wouldn’t change anything. I think it’s best to let nature take it’s course, but then, that’s because that worked out for me. I’m sure it’s a difficult decision for parents who have transgender children. I wouldn’t want to be in their position, trying to decide the “right” thing to do. How do you know? How could you ever know? In the end analysis even the “experts” only know so much. I don’t like tinkering with nature, yet we do it all the time. Our whole modern lifestyle is predicated on it. Where do you draw the line? I think you need to go with your intuitive response, what feels like the best way to handle things.

I can’t imagine putting off puberty – I’d hate to have to go through it as an adult. I have some transgender friends (female to male) & the process of going through puberty when increasing testosterone etc. is not something I’d enjoy. Acne, emotional outbursts and moodiness, and in the cases of males with testosterone a hell of a lot of sexual tension and energy that would drive me crazy if I was in an adult body rather than an adolescent one.

Some things are worth getting over with quickly and never experiencing again unless you are extremely motivated to do so because of something such as switching genders etc.

@Jenniehowell I’m a transsexual (female to male) and doing the puberty thing all over again, I started on hormone therapy 8 months ago. Fortunately though, it’s not been all moodiness and emotional tension. My sexual energy has increased a lot and I’m probably masturbating as often as teenage boys do, but my personality hasn’t changed at all, except perhaps in being happier and more self-confident. The only physical effects have been welcome ones.

@downtide that’s a good thing – I can’t imagine it especially the sexual urges/energy that come with it all. I have enough trouble with the energy I already have – I can’t imagine having more of it and/or what I would do with all that energy.

My friends personalities are the same but there are certain “little” things that are different that they have had to deal with the adjustments of. One is the sexual energy and shifts in urges in that department another that I find actually kinda funny is how they mention having a hard time focusing sometimes & in those moments just not feeling much like communicating. Their wives are talking with them and they’re just in another world and answering with one word answers. It is funny to me because it’s exactly like a teenager and the concept of someone near 40 being so frustrated and distracted as a teenager and imagining their wife dealing with it all sort of makes me laugh. But of course I can laugh because I’m not the one going through it. I imagine I never will but power to those who have a desire/reason worth enduring feeling like a teenager for a bit of time to achieve a particular outcome.

@Jenniehowell I don’t really feel like I’m a teenager again, and to be honest I wouldn’t want to – they were the years during which I was the most depressed and suicidal, and I found female puberty to be deeply humiliating. However even if it did make me feel like a teenager again, it would be worth it this time.

@downtide that’s good to know – I’d hate to feel like a teenager again. Like you mentioned it wasn’t the greatest time in life. I also agree that female puberty is/was deeply humiliating & is often made even more humiliating by all the woo woo women hormone celebrating activities there are. Would be much better if the rights of passage for women going through puberty were more related to getting a deeper voice, scratching your balls and wondering when you were gonna get laid next & figuring out which condom may be the best one to go with. ha ha

Mine started at age 11 or 12, and I would have put it off if I had known that were a possibility. I was in deep depression between ages 12 and uh…. 22. Before I realized I was trans, I could not even fathom living to the age of thirty. I get kind of envious hearing about trans kids whose parents actually pursue hormone-blockers for them until they are 18 and can legally decide to start hormone therapy. If I had come out to my parents as trans when I was young, I would have ended up homeless or dead.

As for all those who get squeamish about “going against mother nature,” well…You don’t even realize you are lucky that your existence does not bring you face to face daily with the need to go against beneficent “mother nature.” Have fun with smallpox, for starters. Seriously. Either accept that modern life is built on a struggle against the impersonal brutality of “nature,” or go without these protections.