Tanner staging

I never had Tanner staging done formally but I know it was informally done. When I had my physical at school at 14, when I had my genital exam the doctor would comment that I had pubes, my genitals had grown in size and also got me to lift my arms to check I had underarm hair. They would also comment about me having hair on my arms and legs but that I didn't yet have any on my face, chest or tummy.

In the US, boys and girls are allowed to participate in certain sports and transition between various competitive levels based on their overall maturity (height and weight, bone and muscular mass and strength, body composition, etc.). For example, playing badminton might be easier compared to going downhill equipped with full skiing gear and then carrying your skis uphill. If a student is not mature enough to accomplish the task, they should probably not be allowed to participate.

In contact sports, where the possibility of a direct impact with another player is imminent, assessing players' maturity becomes even more important. You simply do not want pre-pubescent boys to play against fully matured men, who could inadvertently or intentionally injure younger boys.

In team sports, where boys often change and shower together, it might be more comfortable if their overall development, including genital size and pubic hair intensity, is similar. Prepubescent boys might simply be uncomfortable being naked around older pubescent or postpubescent males, and vice versa, especially if they attend the same school.

For these reasons, various sports require students to achieve a certain degree of maturity, which is well correlated with genital development measured in incremental values from 1 to 5. In boys, a value of 1 is assigned when there are virtually no signs of genital growth and development and no pubic hair; a value of 5 is assigned to a male student displaying fully developed genitalia of an adult size and proportions, along with dense, coarse, and curly pubic hair.

When assigning a Tanner score to a male student, the practitioner will visually inspect the penile length and girth, the width and length of the glans, the thickness and width of the coronal ridge, testicular volume, pigmentation of the penile and scrotal skin, and the intensity, density, and coarseness of the pubic hair. These inspections are often very quick and do not require palpation, except that uncircumcised males are asked to reveal the glans to assess its development.

Does this help?

I agree with what you say (and you are correct) except I doubt comfort in locker rooms has anything to do with it. I think it strictly divided between competitive fairness and also the extent to which it is a liability issue in terms of potential injury by mismatching kids who, in terms of age and weight alone, might be matched against each other.

As an update to this thread, it looks like my state is on the verge of eliminating Tanner staging for student athletes. I am not sure if this passed or not.

https://www.regents.nysed.gov/sites/regents/files/726brca6.pdf

As an update to this thread, it looks like my state is on the verge of eliminating Tanner staging for student athletes. I am not sure if this passed or not.

As is often the case in the US, the pendulum swings too far... until it swings back.

Not to compare, but in recent decades, certain states attempted to eliminate or reduce reimbursement for circumcision, but the policies were eventually reinstated. Other options became almost instantly available, which often had the opposite effect, increasing circumcision rates.

In Florida, for example, where the state does not provide reimbursement for routine infant circumcision, doctors began to perform circumcisions later in life, which increased the popularity of the procedure among older boys and teenagers. Although neonatal circumcision rates in the state are now lower compared to what they used to be, the average rates within the 0-18 age group are now higher.

As an update to this thread, it looks like my state is on the verge of eliminating Tanner staging for student athletes. I am not sure if this passed or not.

https://www.regents.nysed.gov/sites/regents/files/726brca6.pdf

As someone who grew up in NY and played sports there, interesting to see where this goes.

Then there's the 'cup check' done with males who wish to become an MMA fighter, which returns to those testicles, and includes a hernia check. Not the size, but the condition.