I have recently turned 14 and I started my menstrual cycle at the age of ten, earlier than all of my friends. At that stage I was taller or as tall as all my friends, but recently they have all had growth spurts and now they are all much taller than me. I am around 5' ft tall but I am wondering whether I will grow any more. I haven't noticed a change in my height for a while but my mum says not to worry about it. Also my sisters vary a lot in height as one is quite tall whereas the other is only a couple of inches taller than me. I have taken the test on the web site, but it says I'm at stage 4.7. Is this 100% accurate? Do you think I will grow any further? My family keeps on reasuring me I will grow but I honestly feel they are only saying this to make me feel better.



Young people are always excited when they start maturing before their peers. It is fun to be taller and older looking than those around you. However, there is a down side to maturing early. From childhood you have been steadily growing. Most grow at an inch or two every year from age five until their growth spurt in adolescence. At that time, the rate of growth will double or triple for about six months to a year. Then your growth slows down to the point that it stops. When someone starts her growth spurt early, she is starting at a smaller size than someone who starts her growth spurt later in life. Typically, the end result is that early grower will end at a shorter height than a later grower. It is not absolute as there are other factors at play, but this is what you usually see.

The Tanner Stage Calculator cannot be 100% accurate. Even if all the estimates are perfectly correct, it depends on the accuracy of the information entered to make its estimate. People are rarely 100% accurate. However, assuming you were fairly close on you answers, we can definitely say you are near the end of stage four. You haven't seen any growth in a while and at this point it is unlikely to start up again. The most anyone could hope for is perhaps a centimeter at that late of stage.