Hormonal Changes & Teens Brain

The adolescence phase is one of the most difficult and sophisticated phases that a person goes through throughout growing up. Teenagers go through tremendous changes in different physical and mental aspects, and these changes clearly affect their behaviors and reactions.

Effects of hormonal changes on teenagers

• It’s well known that sex hormones have an essential role in sex changes that occur before adulthood, and these hormonal changes don’t start in teenagers at the beginning of adolescence, but they actually start before that, and the end of them is actual puberty. Usually, sex hormones start rising at the age of 9-10 years old in females and 10-12 years old in males, and the start of this rise is the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescence. Therefore, the actual effect of these hormones on physical and mental development in addition to behaviors starts before adolescence.
• Numerous changes occur during adolescence on a physical, emotional, cognitive, and social level, and several studies showed that puberty hormones also affect certain neural and neurobehavioral trajectories, and this effect is clearly reflected in the brain areas that are responsible for emotional and socio-cognitive thinking stimulation.
• The process of puberty itself is a result of sexual maturity that occurs through sex hormones that are secreted by the endocrine glands. These hormones lead to physical changes, such as the growth speed, the change in facial structure and body features, voice change, metabolic changes, and changes in sleep and daily rhythm, in addition to emotional, cognitive, and social alterations. Sexual-physical changes usually start as breast development in females and sex organ development in males, and after that other features start manifesting, such as axillary and pubic hair in males and females and facial hair in males.
• Steroid sex hormones significantly affect the brain in two different ways:

1. Organizational effect: this effect leads to a permanent change in the brain structure, like an increase in the neurons.
2. Activational effect: a temporary change occurs here in the neural systems, like sexual effects.

Effects of sex hormones on behaviors during puberty

• It’s critical to acknowledge that the testosterone and estrogen hormones are secreted in both males and females in different concentrations. The testosterone is higher in males, unlike estrogen, which is higher in females.
• The testosterone elevation during adolescence is correlated with the increase in aggressive and risk-taking behaviors in males, in addition to the increase in the desire for the feeling of accomplishment in both males and females. Moreover, the elevation of estradiol (estrogen) in females during puberty in particular causes an increase in risk-taking behavior, but lower than the effect of testosterone in males.
• The effect of these sex hormones was also noticed on the cognitive function in the brain in addition to how the brain reacts in emotional and social situations, which, in turn, affects how teenagers behave in general.

In a nutshell, sex hormones play a significant role in affecting brain development throughout adolescence, and therefore, this leads to changes in the behaviors of the teenagers in different emotional and social situations. So, it’s critical to comprehend that the teen’s brain functions differently and requires a special way to deal with them.