It is said during puberty rising sex hormones stimulate osteoblasts to produce bone faster than the rate at which epiphyseal cartilage expands. The timing of epiphyseal closure differs between males and females because estrogen causes faster epiphyseal closure, thus accounting for why women are generally shorter than males. My question is with the rise in young women using hormonal birth control methods at much younger ages, does the use of birth control have any affect on the closure of epiphyseal cartilage?