Why more girls are experiencing earlier puberty

[ArabellaScott]

An interesting (and long) article in the New Yorker. Seems the pandemic may have had an effect on puberty onset.

www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/why-more-and-more-girls-are-hitting-puberty-early

My mum is nearly 90 and started at 11, I think. She was probably a touch above average height, not fat, but her diet would have been good as her dad was a gardener and grew vegetables and fruit for his employers. Perk of the job was that he and his family could eat that lovely fresh produce too.

I am in my 60’s I started very late 16 in 6th form. I think most of my friends it was between 12 & 14. Interestingly my brother was late to hit puberty between 17& 18 but my Mother was 14 don’t know about my Father.

15 for my daughter but she was under 6 stone before then

It's interesting from an academic perspective but also society as puberty changes so much.

Thankfully my girls bucked this trend dd1 was 14 and dd2 was 16. Interestingly they are both shorter than average (shorter than me, dd2 particularly short) and very slim (dd1 has eating issues). They both had small appetites as young teens - I'm wondering if there's a link

2000 years ago, girls started puberty between the ages of ten and twelve.

1000 years ago, girls started puberty between the ages of ten and twelve.

The industrial revolution worsened living conditions so badly that a much higher percentage of girls were malnourished and the onset of puberty was delayed to late teen years.

These living conditions were at their most damaging in the 1850s, the time when researchers started collecting data on puberty and menarche.

Since the 1950s, living conditions have improved almost everywhere, but particularly in developed countries malnutrition is no longer a widespread childhood issue.

That's why the onset of puberty has returned to the human norm.

Recent studies have shown that the age of onset has largely stabilised and is no longer decreasing at a significant rate.

We also now know that the onset of puberty differs between peoples of different ethnicities (due to as yet unknown reasons). So when comparing historic data with contemporary data, we must allow for that difference in onset.

I think I remember reading here some time ago that age of menarche is actually similar to the present in hunter gatherer groups with a good mixed diet, plenty of fresh air and exercise and not too much exposure to infectious disease in childhood. Once people move into cities or towns, eat a grain-heavy diet, live in overcrowded conditions etc etc, their average height drops, so it wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that average age of menarche goes up. I may have got this confused, though! Does anyone else remember this?

I'm 60 and started at ten and a half. But was over menopause at 45.5! I was taller than average and well fed...

Epic cross post there! Thanks, Charlie.

@ArabellaScott
Thank you so much for sharing this article.

Have really been struggling with DD who started periods at 7, two months before her 8th birthday.

When I say struggling, I should be clear I am struggling to cope with feeling my baby has lost her childhood and now has to worry about periods and things like emotions, breasts etc, which I thought we wouldn't have to deal with until secondary school.

Apparently it doesn’t. It has the opposite effect. Start periods earlier, menopause occurs later, so you are fertile for longer. Sorry that I can’t find a source for this just now though.

"cosmiccosmos · Today 16:26

Surely this means that menopause will come earlier? Women who start their periods so early will need ti consider this if they want children"

@cosmiccosmos Ha ha ha! Nope! Started at 10, finished at 50, (hopefully, fingers crossed!).

I don’t think that’s right about starting earlier meaning you finish later. My rather vague idea was the opposite

I started mine at 11, as has my daughter. I’m early 50s and haven’t had a period for six months so assume I’m going through the menopause.

Could hormones in meat production affect anything? I speak as someone who eats more or less anything as long as it's tasty.

Very interesting Gasp and Charlie. DD started at 11, she is very tall but boderline underweight.

Slightly off topic, sorry, can anybody recommend period pants that do very small sizes please?

Modi bod do small sizes

Average start 12, average finish 51

Thanks, Charlie, I think this has all been talked about before on this board!

The bit I found particularly interesting in this article was whether the pandemic might have had an effect.

From experience women who start later May finish sooner. Certainly in my case.

Interestingly I recently found that that extended breastfeeding keeps the ovaries ticking over for longer as stimulates amh (I think that's it?) but you can have less oestrogen.

I seemed to have gone really into menopause when I stopped feeding my second child, early 40s. Prior to that I had symptoms. (Can have hrt when bf but I didn't know.)

I've always had bmi on lower side too. Was a waif as a teen, not intentionally. So I don't think my body let me till I put a bit of weight on

Years ago I read a book called, “ The feminisation of nature.” It talked about how the presence of synthetic oestrogen in our environment was having a measurable effect of early onset puberty amongst other things. Many kinds of plastic used in food packaging leach synthetic oestrogen into food and drink directly. But also it is bioaccumulative. The levels in natural water were blamed in the book for changes in human and wild life fertility.higher BMI would also have a roll to play as fat increases hormone levels. It a very interesting book but I think out of print now.

Yes, I've also read that this is a factor. Plastics unlock the same receptors as some etrogens. Be interesting to know how far this might explain the modern craze for feminization/sex change, but no doubt we won't know the answer until long after I'm dead!

I agree that the article was an interesting read, ArabellaScott, and that it's worthwhile and necessary to explore the effect of the pandemic on children. I think we're far from knowing what may cause such an effect and whether it really is widespread, but even just knowing it's happening is worthwhile.

It was also interesting that it went into some detail about the differences between onset in black, white and Hispanic girls. Much of the early comparison data is from poor white girls so we don't really have a good idea about the other two groups in earlier times, but in the future we'llat least be able to make better comparisons.

What is disappointing in the article is that the writer dismisses concerns about Lupron so lightly. She had an opportunity (and in my view an obligation) to look into the use of puberty blockers for precocious puberty, because the evidence base there is almost as poor as it is for using PBs in gender dysphoric children. But I guess that's a step too far since the use of PBs for precocious puberty is what forms the basic justification for its use in treating gender dysphoric children. Can't criticise the former without running the risk of being accused of criticising the latter.

Re BPA etc:

'A second factor was exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which can scramble or mimic the body’s naturally occurring hormones. E.D.C.s include parabens (preservatives that are used in cosmetics, food, and pharmaceuticals), phthalates (which are added to plastics to enhance their durability and flexibility), and the dreaded bisphenol A, or BPA, a chemical compound that the Food and Drug Administration banned for use in baby bottles and sippy cups in 2012.

But determining the role of E.D.C.s in a given health condition is a conundrum for any scientist attempting to design a controlled study, because “we live in an ocean of chemicals,”'