Assigned Male Puberty

Puberty for Male Assigned People

Most changes during puberty happen to everyone, but some are unique to each depending on your body and hormones. This page deals with how testosterone affects your body during puberty. Some things to keep in mind:

• People born with testicles* naturally produce testosterone.
• People born with penises* and testicles are often assigned male at birth (AMAB).

Read below for information on what AMAB folks could expect during puberty, and check out our info page here: Assigned Male Puberty

Hormonal Changes

• Hormones are chemicals that carry messages throughout the body.
• When puberty starts in AMAB folks, sex glands called testicles* begin to make more of a hormone called testosterone.
• Testosterone plays a part in many of the physical and emotional changes you may experience during puberty, including growing body hair, changes to how you smell, your voice, and how your penis looks.

Erections

• Erections (hard-ons or boners) happen when the penis fills with blood and becomes stiff or hard
• Even though we sometimes call them boners, there aren’t actually any bones involved!
• There’s no right way for erections to look! Yours may curve up or stick straight out, it might point slightly to the left or right, point down, or dead centre.
• Erections don’t always happen because you’re turned on, during puberty your hormones can cause them to happen at any time
• Unexpected erections (or no-reason-boners/NRBs) can sometimes be embarrassing, but they’re totally normal! You can always find ways of hiding them if you feel uncomfortable; some people find relaxing or distracting yourself can help get rid of them though they don’t tend to last very long.
• Erections happen to everyone with a penis! It’s not as embarrassing as you might think it is.
• Read more about them here: Erections

Ejaculation

• When someone ejaculates (cums, jizzes or busts), the muscles in the penis push out semen (cum) through the head of the penis.
• Semen is a whitish, stick fluid that contains sperm (the cells that can get someone pregnant), as well as other fluids. Sperm only makes up a tiny bit of semen, the rest of it are fluids from various glands inside your body.
• Ejaculation usually happens when you have an orgasm, but not always!
• Everyone ejaculates for the first time at a different age, most people actually experience their first time when they’re sleeping we call those wet dreams
• Wet dreams are super common especially during puberty, they should happen less often as you get older
• Read more about ejaculation and wet dreams here: Ejaculation and Wet Dreams

Penises

• Penises come in all shapes and sizes, whatever you have is normal!
• We usually say that on average soft penises tend to be about 2.5-5 inches long and erect penises usually between 5-7 inches long but lots of people have smaller or larger penises.
• During puberty your penis grows and changes a lot, so try not to think about these numbers too much.
• Penises can be circumcised or uncircumcised. Circumcision is when the foreskin (a sensitive piece of skin that covers the tip of the penis) is surgically removed. Read more about circumcision here: Circumcision
• Everyone has a different idea of what sort of penis they’d like to have or prefer a partner to have, even though things like porn or social media might make us think otherwise.
• Learn more about different anatomical terms and functions here: Penises and here: Penis and Testicles

Voice Changes

• During puberty, your voice may get lower and deeper.
• As your voice changes, it might “crack,” or suddenly go into a higher pitch for a second. This is normal.
• The pitch of your voice can be all over the place for a while, but this won’t last long and you’ll settle into your adult voice.
• If you feel embarrassed when your voice cracks, try not to worry.
• Remind yourself that you have other friends and classmates who are going through the same thing!

*We know that these aren’t the words everyone uses for their bodies (eg. trans folks), and support you using the language that feels best for you.