Gonadarche

Gonadarche refers to the earliest gonadalchanges of puberty. In response to pituitarygonadotropins, the ovariesin girls and the testesin boys begin to grow and increase the production of the sex steroids, especially estradioland testosterone.

In boys, testicular enlargement is the first physical sign of gonadarche, and usually of puberty.

In girls, ovarian growth cannot be directly seen, so thelarcheand growth acceleration are usually the first evidence of gonadarche.

Gonadarche should be contrasted with adrenarche. Gonadarche indicates that true central puberty has begun, while adrenarche is an independent maturational process only loosely associated with complete puberty.

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonadarche Wikipedia article Gonadarche.