Question

What are secondary sex characteristics? When do they develop and what determines which characteristics developed??

Answer 1

Secondary sexual characteristics refer to specific physical features which appear at puberty in human male and female. While primary sex characteristics refer to biological features present at birth directly concerned with reproduction that allows us to tell males from females. As puberty begins and sex hormone levels rise, differences appear, though some changes are similar in males and females. In human males, the hormone testosterone induces the growth of the genitals and visible secondary sex characteristics include pubic hair, facial hair and Adam's apple. In female sex hormones, oestrogen and progesterone cause breasts to develop and visible secondary sex characteristics include pubic hair, enlarged breasts and widened hips of females.