Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsDefinitionThe 5 StagesIts ValueIts AdvantagesIts Medical SignificanceWhat Is Healthy?
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Definition
The 5 Stages
Its Value
Its Advantages
Its Medical Significance
What Is Healthy?
Tanner staging, also known as sexual maturity rating (SMR), is a tool healthcare providers use to track development duringpuberty. It outlines five specific stages for the physical changes during this period, including genital, breast, andpubic hairdevelopment.
This article discusses the Tanner stages tool, outlining its use and providing context into potential issues it can help flag.
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Tanner Staging Defined
The Tanner staging scale defines physical development milestones based on specific sex characteristics. This includes the size of the genitals, breasts, andtesticles, and pubic hair growth.
PubertyPubertyis the period when a child starts to become sexually mature. For people assigned female at birth, these physical changes typically happen between ages 10 and 14. For people born male, the changes usually occur between ages 12 and 16.
Puberty
Pubertyis the period when a child starts to become sexually mature. For people assigned female at birth, these physical changes typically happen between ages 10 and 14. For people born male, the changes usually occur between ages 12 and 16.
What Are the 5 Tanner Stages?
Healthcare providers use the Tanner stages to document and describe the physical changes people undergo during puberty. Each person will travel through the Tanner stages at different rates, but this puberty timeline helps record physical milestones to ensure development is on track.
Rated on a 5-point scale, males are assessed for genital development and pubic hair growth, while girls are assessed for breast and pubic hair growth.
Tanner Stage 1
Tanner Stage 2
Tanner Stage 3
When Do Boys Stop Growing After Puberty?
Tanner Stage 4
Tanner Stage 5
What Is Tanner Staging Used For?
Tanner staging is used in pediatric (child) and adolescent (preteen) medical settings. Healthcare providers utilize it to keep track of patients' body changes during puberty, help counsel patients about the puberty timeline, recommend appropriate medical screenings, and monitor for any potentially related issues.
A healthcare provider might use Tanner staging to give a patient guidance in advance on what to expect when their menstrual cycle starts or to give context into when a related medical screening will need to take place, such as ascoliosis exam.
What Are the Advantages?
Experts have pointed out that the Tanner staging tool is helpful for accurately gauging the sexual maturity rating for adolescent patients. It is not physically invasive and allows for some adjustment based on each person’s time frame for starting and ending the puberty stage.
What Is the Medical Significance?
Puberty is a part of normal human growth and development. This period in your life involves relatively rapid growth and numerous physical—along with emotional—changes. If puberty isn’t happening around the average time frame, getting additional medical care for this issue might be necessary.
By using Tanner staging, healthcare providers can be made aware of any developmental changes that may be considered abnormal. The Tanner staging tool allows this to happen aligned and uniformly so that providers across the board use the same criteria to gauge their adolescent patients' health.
What’s Considered Average/Healthy?
It’s important to point out that everyone develops differently and at a different rate during puberty. While this period typically lasts roughly two to three years, each person’s experience during puberty will vary slightly.
Tanner staging helps flag whether development is happening at an average or healthy rate. This allows healthcare providers to watch for abnormal (but treatable) signs of issues such as:
Summary
Healthcare providers use Tanner staging to assess the status and progression of physical changes during puberty, the time when a child’s body transitions into adulthood. The Tanner stages consist of five milestones for the various physical markers of puberty.
This tool allows healthcare providers to gauge whether puberty development is happening on track and recommend appropriate medical care if it isn’t.
9 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.MedlinePlus.Puberty.American Academy of Pediatrics.Physical development in girls: What to expect during puberty.Vermont Department of Health.The Tanner stages.University of Cincinnati.Reproductive physiology.Sultan C, Gaspari L, Maimoun L, Kalfa N, Paris F.Disorders of puberty.Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol. 2018;48:62-89. doi:10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2017.11.00Cabrera SM, Bright GM, Frane JW, Blethen SL, Lee PA.Age of thelarche and menarche in contemporary US females: a cross-sectional analysis.J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2014;27(1-2). doi:10.1515/jpem-2013-0286Reamy BV, Slakey JB.Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: review and current concepts.Am Fam Physician. 2001 Jul 1;64(1):111-6. PMID: 11456428.National Institutes of Health: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.About puberty and precocious puberty.Klein DA, Emerick JE, Sylvester JE, Vogt KS.Disorders of puberty: an approach to diagnosis and management.Am Fam Physician. 2017;96(9):590-599. PMID: 29094880
9 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.MedlinePlus.Puberty.American Academy of Pediatrics.Physical development in girls: What to expect during puberty.Vermont Department of Health.The Tanner stages.University of Cincinnati.Reproductive physiology.Sultan C, Gaspari L, Maimoun L, Kalfa N, Paris F.Disorders of puberty.Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol. 2018;48:62-89. doi:10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2017.11.00Cabrera SM, Bright GM, Frane JW, Blethen SL, Lee PA.Age of thelarche and menarche in contemporary US females: a cross-sectional analysis.J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2014;27(1-2). doi:10.1515/jpem-2013-0286Reamy BV, Slakey JB.Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: review and current concepts.Am Fam Physician. 2001 Jul 1;64(1):111-6. PMID: 11456428.National Institutes of Health: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.About puberty and precocious puberty.Klein DA, Emerick JE, Sylvester JE, Vogt KS.Disorders of puberty: an approach to diagnosis and management.Am Fam Physician. 2017;96(9):590-599. PMID: 29094880
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
MedlinePlus.Puberty.American Academy of Pediatrics.Physical development in girls: What to expect during puberty.Vermont Department of Health.The Tanner stages.University of Cincinnati.Reproductive physiology.Sultan C, Gaspari L, Maimoun L, Kalfa N, Paris F.Disorders of puberty.Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol. 2018;48:62-89. doi:10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2017.11.00Cabrera SM, Bright GM, Frane JW, Blethen SL, Lee PA.Age of thelarche and menarche in contemporary US females: a cross-sectional analysis.J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2014;27(1-2). doi:10.1515/jpem-2013-0286Reamy BV, Slakey JB.Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: review and current concepts.Am Fam Physician. 2001 Jul 1;64(1):111-6. PMID: 11456428.National Institutes of Health: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.About puberty and precocious puberty.Klein DA, Emerick JE, Sylvester JE, Vogt KS.Disorders of puberty: an approach to diagnosis and management.Am Fam Physician. 2017;96(9):590-599. PMID: 29094880
MedlinePlus.Puberty.
American Academy of Pediatrics.Physical development in girls: What to expect during puberty.
Vermont Department of Health.The Tanner stages.
University of Cincinnati.Reproductive physiology.
Sultan C, Gaspari L, Maimoun L, Kalfa N, Paris F.Disorders of puberty.Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol. 2018;48:62-89. doi:10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2017.11.00
Cabrera SM, Bright GM, Frane JW, Blethen SL, Lee PA.Age of thelarche and menarche in contemporary US females: a cross-sectional analysis.J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2014;27(1-2). doi:10.1515/jpem-2013-0286
Reamy BV, Slakey JB.Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: review and current concepts.Am Fam Physician. 2001 Jul 1;64(1):111-6. PMID: 11456428.
National Institutes of Health: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.About puberty and precocious puberty.
Klein DA, Emerick JE, Sylvester JE, Vogt KS.Disorders of puberty: an approach to diagnosis and management.Am Fam Physician. 2017;96(9):590-599. PMID: 29094880
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