What signals the body to start puberty? Is it just a pattern of chemical reactions that starts changing the body around the same time? is there something that signals the body to start changing at a particular point?
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There is a small part of your brain called the Hypothalamus.
The hypothalamus does a lot of things, but related to puberty it basically does a checklist if the body is big enough and have large enough fat reserves that it’s ready to become sexually active.
Once the body is going “We’re ready to start” the hypothalamus starts to emit a hormone (gonadotropin) that trigger the sex organs to mature (testes, ovaries). These organs in turn start to emit their own hormones when they’ve grown enough, and when those hormone levels are high enough it triggers further mental and physical development.
It’s basically a staging list, where each step triggers the next as it becomes functional.
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