Height of women

Yes, height of women stop increasing after the age of about 15-17 years. More precisely, height increase would not cease after the menstrual cycle commences but it will slow down rapidly for sure.

Auxology-It is a science which deals with the study of height of an individual. Actually the height increase is multifactorial trait which means it is determined by lots of factors affecting male and female separately, for which we will not be going into the detail but all I would like to mention here is that diet, genetics, nutritional status, even pregnancy course and environment are some of the factors which affect height deviations in male and female separately.

Growth process-To understand why female height stops increasing considerably after commencement of menstrual cycle, we first must understand how height actually increases during puberty, in short. The linear growth is mostly influenced by hGH i.e. human growth hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary gland. This hormone also stimulates IGF-1 i.e. insulin like growth factor 1 secreted from liver. Both these hormones are secreted in pulsatile manner with peaks during sleep hours. The height increases as the cartilage at the epiphyseal ends of long bones lengthens which gradually ossify and forms a complete hard bone. Now this process is common in both male and female physiological systems.

Now comes the answer to your question - During puberty the differences in male and female arises in the duration of onset and the sex steroids involved in the process. In females, the process of puberty starts at the age of 10, while in males, at the age of 12. In females the puberty ends by about 16 years of age and in males at the end of about 18 years of age. Girls attain reproductive maturity after 4 years from the commencement of first physiological and physical changes. While the boys continue to grow for 6 more years after puberty till they attain maturity.

Now, the key hormone that answers your query is Estradiol. This hormone is a product formed of metabolism of testosterone in males and even the principle hormone affecting the female development and secondary sexual characters. The central dogma is that this hormone causes the epiphyseal maturation rate to increase rapidly and hence closes the epiphyseal cartilage and forms a single hard bone. In males, this hormone is found in lesser proportions in the first place, plus, it increases slowly and gradually providing more time before epiphysis closes up and hence males are longer than females. In females this hormone as I told is the principle sex hormone and hence obviously found in larger amounts. This phenomena causes earlier epiphyseal maturation and closure. Moreover it rises earlier and reaches higher levels at commencement and attainment of regularity of menstrual cycle, which explains why women stop growing in height after menstruation becomes regular.

Hope, this solved your queries.

the hormone that increases height actually also contributes to the adult features and changes that occur after menstrual cycle starts so slowly the rate of height decreases and comes to halt after some time

Hi!

Explanation given above by the doctor is very much relevant and almost correct.

Coming to your question, I sense that you are feeling that onset of menstrual cycle marks the halt of growth. But it is literally a contradictory statement.

Because estradiol the female sex hormone which increases with the onset of menstruation causes the rapid increase in height but early closure of epiphysis(cessation of growth). So the concept of cessation of growth immediately after menarche is wrong rather it causes a rapid growth which is followed by cessation of growth.

In comparison to males, females have an early growth spurt at the onset of puberty but early stoppage of growth and hence the ultimate height of females is less than the males.