Im getting an x-ray on my hand to find out when i'll stop growing. Please answer!?

Question

Im 13 and 6ft tall, and thats pretty weird cause in FEMALE :|

ANd on Monday i'm getting an X-ray on my hand, to measure how much my bone plates or something have 'fused'.

And i dont know how it works. WHAT THE h**l.

Please could someone explain it. I dont mind if you talk to me like im a baby. I just need to understand whats going on!

And if they find out that i'm going to be REALLY TALL, the doctor said that he'd refer me to a paediotrician to maybe prescribe me to Oestrogen [Apparently like a MASSIVE dose of the pill] to encourage my bone plates to fuse together, so i'll stop growing. Im SO confused! I want to stop growing now, cause its SO weird having my head basically absove the clouds! But the doctor said theres bad side effects such as Headaches and even worse, blod clots in the legs and lungs. JDRHYYU!!!

Please explain! Thanks SO much. It means a lot to me :]

Xx

x[Happy Birthday Joseph Jonas!]x

Answer 1

Sounds exactly like the same thing that happened to my uncle midget.

When he was a kid he got kicked in the head by a horse, and can't stop growing. He's over 7 ft tall now.

=X

Anyways... when you're born, you have wayyyyyy more bones than you're going to have when you're an adult. That's because the bones need to have growing room and to make it easier to pass through the birth canal.  As you get older, bone slowly replaces cartilage in certain places (such as the top of your head.. a baby's soft spot is cartilage between the bones in their skull)

The doctors want to check how far along you are in the growth process to see whether or not you need anything to stop your growth. For instance, if they find out you're going to grow maybe one or two more inches, they probably aren't going to prescribe you the pill... but if you're going to grow another foot, they're going to want to get that under control so that you don't have medical problems in the future.

PS. Be proud of your height... it could land you a modeling contract one day

Answer 2

You have what are called epiphyseal plates (aka: "growth plates")  in growing long bones. They are located at one or both ends of the bones.  As you get older, these plates fuse together, thus stopping your bone from growing any longer.  So you will stop getting taller, etc.  One way to tell if someone is still growing is to take an x-ray of a long bone (usually in the hand/wrist).  If the x-ray shows that the bones still have growth plates on the ends of them, that means that the person is still growing.  If the x-ray shows that the growth plates are gone, that means the person has stopped growing.  

I have a close friend who is 6 feet tall, and has been that tall since I met her (when we were 14).  Maybe you are done growing and are blessed with long legs.  It can be s**y!!  Good luck with everything!