Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes! Quiz Show

1. Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes! Quiz Show Puberty Edition

2. Boys and girls will both develop muscle tissue during puberty. FALSE Boys develop more muscle and the bones get heavier during puberty. This is when the features become more obviously male, like wider shoulders and jaws.

3. Only boys produce testosterone. FALSE Testosterone, which plays an important role in male sexual development, is produced mainly by the testes in boys and in much smaller amounts by the ovaries in girls. Testosterone is also produced by the adrenal glands in both girls and boys. Estrogen, the female sex hormone, is also produced in small amounts in boys.

4. Boys and girls both develop broader shoulders during puberty. FALSE Widening of the shoulders occurs as part of the male puberty process. Expansion of the ribcage is caused by the effects of testosterone during puberty. Hence males generally have broad shoulders and expanded chests, allowing them to inhale more air to supply their muscles with oxygen.

5. A boy’s breasts can get bigger and become sore during puberty. TRUE Enlarged or swollen breasts are seen quite frequently in teenage boys. This is called "pre-pubertal gynecomastia". As a boy enters puberty, many hormones are made that act to develop the secondary sex characteristics such as, pubic hair, genital growth and deeper voice. Some of these hormones originate from and thus resemble female hormones. In some boys the levels are so high, the breast gets stimulated to grow by the female type of hormones. Because the breast tissue is stimulated, the breast may be tender or painful.

6. The size of a boy’s penis determines how masculine he is. FALSE A male’s concerns about penis size are fueled by cultural messages equating penis size with masculinity. There is no truth to this myth.

7. Boys are born with testicles inside their bodies rather than outside. TRUE As you were developing in your mother's womb, your testicles formed inside your abdominal cavity. The descent might take a few weeks to complete, but normally by twelve weeks after birth they drop through holes in the abdomen into your scrotum. During childhood, a boy's testicles can move back up into the abdominal wall, but they descend again. When puberty is reached, the testicles grow and no longer are able to fit into the opening of the abdomen.

8. The “shrinking” of the testicles is not a cause for concern. TRUE When the body gets cold, the “shrinking” of the testicles is the male’s way of regulating the temperature of his testicles in order to continue to produce sperm.

9. Wet dreams, or nocturnal emissions, occur only when a male has a sexy dream. FALSE A wet dream is when you ejaculate while you're asleep. A dream does not have to be about anything sexual in order to have a nocturnal emission. Semen can build up inside your body and one way that semen gets released is with a wet dream.

10. Men will continue to make sperm until they die. TRUE In general, men keep producing sperm from puberty right on until they die. As they get older the quality and quantity may decline, but sperm will continue to be produced, unless they suffer damage to their testes through either disease or injury.

11. An erection occurs when the blood vessels in the penis fill with an extra supply of blood. TRUE An erection is a state when two tubular structures in the penis become engorged with rapid flowing blood. Since more blood is entering than exiting the penis, it has to make more room for the blood so it stretches out, making the penis longer and stiffer.

12. Masturbating can lead to health concerns with the penis. FALSE Masturbation is a natural and harmless expression of sexuality for both men and women. It does not cause any physical injury or harm to the body, and can be performed in moderation throughout a person's lifetime as a part of normal sexual behavior.

13. Hormones have no effect on a boy's emotions. FALSE Boys and girls may experience sudden changes in feelings during puberty. Feelings can swing backwards and forwards and you may feel like laughing at one moment and crying the next. Boys particularly can experience strong feelings of anger. Sudden mood changes are partly caused by the increasing amount of hormones in the body.

14. A girl's breasts may grow unevenly, one slightly bigger than the other. TRUE When girls begin puberty, their breasts begin to develop starting with just a little swelling under the nipple. This is known as breast budding. They may notice that one of their breasts starts developing before the other or that one is growing more quickly. Many times this difference in breast size evens out once a girl is older, usually by age 20. But it's also perfectly normal for women's breasts to remain different sizes even when they're fully developed.

15. A girl's body develops more fatty tissue during puberty than a boy's. TRUE Females naturally have more body fat than men, and are supposed to. It's primarily for bearing and feeding babies. Gaining some weight is part of developing into a woman, and it's unhealthy for girls to go on a diet to try to stop this normal weight gain.

16. A girl's hips get wider during puberty to help support a growing baby during pregnancy. TRUE As part of the maturing process, the body needs to prepare to bear children.

17. After puberty, the vagina is wet most of the time TRUE About 6 months to 1 year before a girl gets her first period, her body may start to produce vaginal discharge. This is normal and is caused by the changing level of hormones in the body, resulting in an increase in secretions in the vagina. This discharge helps keep the vagina healthy. Normal vaginal fluids vary in texture from thin and slightly sticky to thick and gooey. They also vary in color, ranging from clear to white or off-white. The amount of discharge can vary depending upon a girl's menstrual cycle. For example, fluids tend to be a bit heavier around the time a girl ovulates, which is when an egg is released from the ovary and moves into the fallopian tube.

18. A girl's period, or menstruation, lasts an average of 5 days. TRUE However, that is an average. How long a girl's period lasts varies. It's perfectly normal for some girls to have their first period for just 2 or 3 days. The amount of blood (also called "menstrual fluid") that a girl has during her period also varies. Some girls will have a very light flow of blood the first couple of times they get their period and others may have what seems like much more. Lots of girls expect their blood to be bright red during their periods. It's completely normal for menstrual blood to be brownish.

19. Once a girl starts her period, she will get one every 28 days. FALSE Doctors often talk about a girl's monthly cycle — the number of days from the start of her period to the start of the next one — in terms of a 28-day cycle. Women's cycle lengths vary — some have a 24-day cycle, some have a 34-day cycle. And a girl may notice that her cycles are different lengths each month — especially for the few years after she first starts getting her period.

20. A girl needs to clean inside her vagina every month. FALSE The vagina is a self-cleaning organ. Each day, the vagina produces some discharge that helps cleanse it by flushing out any harmful dirt or bacteria. Every girl has her own scent and every girl has vaginal discharge, which she might notice on her underwear or on toilet paper. On some days, the discharge is white and pasty. On the days of the month when a girl is ovulating, it may be clear and stringy, kind of like egg white. And on a few days each month, there may not be any discharge at all.

21. It is normal for sexual desires to develop in girls during puberty. TRUE During the teen years, sexual feelings are awakened in new ways in both guys and girls because of the hormonal and physical changes of puberty. These changes involve both the body and the mind, and teens may wonder about new — and often intense — sexual feelings.

22. Take the WebMD Challenge For more information about changes during puberty, check out Teen Health at WebMD. Click here to take the “Teen Guys Quiz: Test Your Puberty IQ”. Click here to the “Teen Girls Quiz: What’s Going On Down There?”